The man with the hardest job in F1
In theory, Valtteri Bottas has all the tools he needs at his disposal to win multiple world championships. The problem is the phenomenal talent on the other side of the Mercedes garage standing in his way. Having agreed a contract extension for 2020, is Bottas simply set for yet another season of arduous punishment, or can he finally achieve what seems an impossible dream?
Valtteri Bottas has a large – and rather obvious – problem in his life. You see, Bottas wants to be Formula 1 world champion. He has got himself into the right position to do it. He is in the best team and he is driving what has been, on balance for the duration of his time there, the best car. But you already know what the problem is. And so does Bottas. The problem is Lewis Hamilton. Bottas believes he can beat Hamilton. He has to, of course. On a micro level – individual races; single qualifying sessions – he has already. At the time of writing, after the Singapore Grand Prix, Bottas had won five races since he joined Mercedes in 2017. But then there’s Hamilton’s record. In the same period, he’s won 28. That’s more than five times as many. Ouch.
Bottas’s problem is on the macro level – how to beat Hamilton over a full season? He’s had the chance to study Hamilton closely for nearly three years now. Has he seen any weaknesses that give him cause to think the soon-to-be sixtime world champion can be defeated?
“Nobody’s perfect; also Lewis,” says Bottas, in an exclusive interview with F1 Racing. “For sure he makes mistakes as well. I can’t point to any big weaknesses. He has been in the sport quite a while and he has been able to work on his weaknesses along his career and he has become super-consistent and superfast. So, I can’t say one weakness. But he’s not unbeatable.”
If that sounds delusional – and it will to some – Bottas does have a point. Hamilton isn’t unbeatable. In 2011, he finished the season behind Jenson Button when they were teammates at Mclaren. And in 2016, he lost the world title to his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
But both occurred in rather unusual circumstances. In 2011, Hamilton was going through a personal crisis which affected his performance, and in 2016 he was stricken by terrible reliability compared to Rosberg, with a series of engine problems afflicting his season.
Hamilton’s reliability problems on their own gifted Rosberg the 2016 championship – they cost Lewis far more points than the measly five by which he lost the title. It’s also true, though, that he could still have won the title even with those problems taken into account. A series of bad starts, and a couple of shaky weekends, ensured that was not the case, and Rosberg played a part in this by fighting psychological warfare behind the scenes, and getting under Hamilton’s skin.
Rosberg left Mercedes at the end of 2016, totally spent by the effort required on every level to deliver the title. Realising he was never likely to be lucky enough to benefit from such a perfect storm of circumstances again, Rosberg called it a day.
The German gone, Hamilton and team boss Toto Wolff no longer troubled to hide the fact that Rosberg’s presence had created a poisonous atmosphere inside the team, and passed up few opportunities to say how much more pleasant things were with the apolitical, uncomplicated Bottas in as Rosberg’s replacement.
Hamilton’s driving – especially in terms of consistency – appears to have moved onto another level since Rosberg quit, and he has admitted the more harmonious atmosphere within Mercedes has made that possible.
Bottas obviously realises that, too. But although trying to unsettle Hamilton seems an obvious route to success – given that the only times he has ever been beaten by a team-mate over a season have been when his mental equilibrium has been disturbed – Bottas insists he won’t play that game.
“I want to do the talking on the track,” he says. “That’s my style. I want to do things my way and I have some good respect for the whole team. I want to play fair but hard.”
The way Bottas sees it, he does not need to play dirty to beat Hamilton. For him, the evidence he can do it is in the way he has started the last two seasons.
Last season, Bottas would have been leading the championship after four races had he been a little luckier
– had a Safety Car not turned a win into second in China, and had a puncture not turned a win into a retirement in Azerbaijan. This year, he actually was leading the championship after four races – and he was three-two up on Hamilton in qualifying after five.
In 2018, that bad luck, and the seriousness of the challenge from Ferrari, meant Bottas was never really in the title fight, and by mid-season his position as a support driver for Hamilton was made clear. In Germany, he was called off battling with Hamilton after a restart following the Safety Car for Sebastian Vettel’s crash out of the lead, and a week later in Hungary Wolff was publicly calling him a “wing man” for helping out Hamilton in the battle for the victory with Vettel.
Bottas was angry about that, and although Wolff moved to calm the situation, that controversy seemed to affect his driving, and a series of unconvincing performances followed. Then, in Russia, arguably his best track, he was on course for victory, only to be ordered to hand the win to Hamilton to bring the championship that bit closer.
By the end of the season, Bottas cut a dispirited figure. Beaten on track, relegated to a de facto number two role, without a win, he was on the receiving end of some cutting criticism from some quarters of the media.
“I was pretty angry about the end of 2018,” Bottas says. “For sure with myself to get into that situation, and then through that not-so-positive vibes to the sport in general. I was a bit pissed off about everything related to F1, and that’s why I really wanted to disconnect and not think about it.”
He went home to Finland for a “reset”, then had a holiday in Chile over Christmas. When he got back to Europe, he says, “there was like a switch in the beginning of January that I managed to get myself together and get very strong motivation that I can do it. And now it’s better to give it my all. And just had a thought in my mind: ‘Fuck them. I can do this.’ That was the mentality.”
Fuck who?
“Just everyone. It’s how it goes.”
This came, he said, from reappraising the way he approached his job.
“Change quite a bit of things I do between races,” he continues, “winter preparation, a bit more relaxed internally, a bit more following my own instincts and trying to make sure I keep myself happy and not to follow certain protocols too strictly, so I can actually do other stuff as well [other] than just think about F1. And I feel it works for me and maintains my energy levels better, and the happy head.”
The result was what some called “Bottas 2.0” at the start of the season. But then things started to unravel again. Bottas failed to convert pole in Spain into the lead at the first corner, which Hamilton took and went on to a comfortable win. Then in Monaco, Bottas was unlucky to be hit by Max Verstappen in
“I WANT TO DO MY TALKING ON THE TRACK. THAT’S MY STYLE. I WANT TO PLAY FAIR BUT HARD”
the pit lane, which dropped him from second to third.
In two races, a one-point title lead morphed into a 17-point deficit, and things continued to head downhill. In Canada and France, Bottas was unconvincing. He had a spin in final qualifying in Montréal and was comprehensively out-paced by Hamilton in both races. The gap ballooned to 36 points. Wolff began to suspect Bottas was suffering a bit of a dip, which was bad timing, because Mercedes was facing a decision as to whether to keep the Finn or replace him with Esteban Ocon for 2020.
A bad weekend in Austria for Hamilton allowed Bottas to claw five points back, but then came Silverstone, where Hamilton was on another level in his home race, despite Bottas snatching pole. Valtteri was unlucky with the timing of the Safety Car, which gifted Lewis the lead, but Hamilton was going to win anyway, having kept his tyres in much better condition than Bottas through the first stint, despite spending it right behind and looking for a way past, and going for a single stop while Bottas had locked into two. Thirty-nine points. Germany, and Hamilton’s worst race for years, offered a golden opportunity for Bottas to claw back a chunk of that deficit – but then he crashed out of second in the closing stages. 41 points. Hungary, where Bottas collided with both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari within two corners on the opening lap, was another low moment – again after beating Hamilton in qualifying. Now, after Hamilton’s brilliant come-from-behind win, the gap was 62 points, and it was effectively game over. Meanwhile, in qualifying, from Monaco to Singapore, it was 8-2 to Hamilton, who then led 10-5 overall, at an average of 0.122secs.
Why the dip for Bottas after Spain?
“I can’t see it myself that there was a dip,” he argues. “There were a couple of mistakes, which can happen, and for me were happening at completely the wrong time. Not happy on those and I could have performed better in a few races, no doubt. But I wouldn’t call it a dip. It is part of the sport, how it goes, and you try to minimise those and learn from them.”
Bottas says he believes this has been the strongest season of his career thus far.
“Qualifying performance I have been pretty happy with,” he adds. “Race performance at times is an area I need to
improve on, depending on tracks or circumstances, but I felt I made a step from last year. Not so happy about the gap to Lewis now, but there have been a couple of unlucky races. He has been strong as always and tough to beat. All in all, best season so far but still can be better.”
Bottas says frequently that he knows he can beat Hamilton if he performs at his best. But beating him over a season requires doing that pretty much all the time. How hard is it to do that?
“It is nearly impossible,” Bottas concedes. “And that’s annoying. Lewis is usually super-consistent on his performance and he is always there. For him, it comes pretty natural as well. And with all the experience he has in F1 – much more than I do – for sure that helps and that brings the consistency.
“How to be at your personal best is the same issue for any sport, any athlete, anything you do. It’s not possible to peak every day, or 21 weekends in your life. There are so many factors that affect that.”
So, having sat opposite Hamilton in debriefs for three years, having pored over his data, watched him out on track, what has Bottas learned about why his team-mate beats him?
“In terms of the details in the driving, it is always very visible what kind of things he does to be quick.” And can Bottas do them too? “For sure I could but it’s not that simple,” he explains. “There are many things on the driving side that you need to build in and adjust, change your style. And everyone has a different driving style and that requires different set-ups sometimes.
“I’ve learned a lot about set-up of the car, mainly the biggest thing is the efficiency on race pace, at the same time keeping the tyres in good condition. That is his strength. So many small details on that. Otherwise, small things here and there for sure I’ve learned.”
In essence, Bottas has a simple choice – try to keep his seat at Mercedes and work hard at raising his game to the point where he can take on Hamilton over a year; or leave for another team where he can be number one, and hope that team can challenge Mercedes.
The second option is not very realistic, given Ferrari’s future seems to be with Leclerc, and Red Bull is locked in with Verstappen and a young driver programme. In any case, Bottas
thinks the best thing for his career is to be in the best car.
“I would definitely prefer to be here because I believe next year it is going to be the strongest team, with all the facts of the last few years and looking at next year without any regulation changes,” Bottas says. “We had a strong car this year and we are leading the championship with a good margin, so for me it’s the best bet to win the championship and that’s the only thing I want, no matter that it is against Lewis. I know I have been able to be ahead of him. It’s never going to be easy to beat him but, like I said earlier, it’s not impossible.”
David Coulthard, who spent his career in a similar position, believes Bottas has the toughest job in F1, trying to beat Hamilton in the same car. Does Bottas agree?
He smiles. “Could be. Could be. Yeah. But I wouldn’t change my spot. I like challenges.”
“IT’S NEVER GOING TO BE EASY TO BEAT HIM [LEWIS] BUT IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE. I LIKE CHALLENGES”