Ridiculous to write off Bottas… and he’ll show why on Sunday
(Sochi) Sunday, 1pm, Sky Sports F1 and Channel 4
JUST three races into a 20-grand prix season people are already saying Mercedes need to focus solely on Lewis Hamilton. That’s ridiculous — it’s far too early. Sure, the smart money is that Lewis will end up being the team’s front-runner in the title battle.
But we’re in a situation where we were lauding Valtteri Bottas for his pole position in Bahrain and yet 24 hours later everyone was ready to write him off.
Trust me, I understand Formula One is a cut-throat business but it would be naive of Mercedes to concentrate on just one driver so early in the season. Such is the nature of the sport, so many different permutations can play out.
Ferrari have a clear No1 in Sebastian Vettel because Kimi Raikkonen’s not fully delivered yet this season, and that means the team are predominantly pushing for him, and understandably that will make Mercedes nervous.
Sure, Valtteri’s not had the best start necessarily and things have not gone the way he might have hoped but it’s far, far too early to write him off.
Valtteri has driven well in Sochi for Williams and this race could prove the turning point — the moment he finally silences the doubters.
Regardless of what has been said — and I have no doubt he’ll be aware of that because as a driver you are despite public protestations saying otherwise — he’ll be confident he can deliver a strong weekend. Valtteri is there or thereabouts, and to beat Lewis to pole in only his third race for Mercedes is some achievement.
That said, he didn’t have a great race in Bahrain. Okay, he struggled with his tyres but he’s not a novice driver. He knows how the tyres work, he knows how these Formula One cars work, he needs to adapt to the circumstances.
In contrast Lewis adapted superbly despite his obvious difficulties in that race, and you’d like to think that Valtteri would have had the perfect opportunity to right those wrongs and get to grips with the Mercedes in the postBahrain test.
Despite what everyone else is saying, I believe Mercedes are of the view that Lewis and Valtteri can have a fair fight despite the team orders in Bahrain.
For one, the team have always been fair — for the most part — in letting their drivers race and they won’t suddenly rip up that approach just because they have a new driver.
Plus Toto Wolff calls the shots and has a strong affiliation with Valtteri having managed him at Williams.
Both Lewis and Sebastian want to go out on the track and dominate their team-mates, that’s just the natural instinct of being a racing driver. Simply put, Lewis wants to squash Valtteri.
And I know he was all smiles after his team-mate got pole in Bahrain but that will have hurt him.
What Ferrari’s resurgence has done, though, has thrown up this discussion. In the past, Mercedes just had to worry about themselves bar the odd race blip, now that’s changed.
I’m interested to see what Valtteri’s made of this weekend. It’s a big step-up. I remember going from Lotus to Benetton, of suddenly having a nice familylike set-up evaporating, the spotlight and pressure being on, and the critics ready to sharpen their knives for you.
As for the title race, it’s beautifully poised between Lewis and Sebastian. If you were a betting man, you’d say Seb marginally looks the likelier champion come the end-of-season.
Sure, the Ferrari lacks the one-lap qualifying pace of the Mercedes but, in the race, the Ferrari has the edge.
But it’s not so simplistic. There is also the development of the car to consider and Ferrari in recent years have not always been as adept at that, falling away a little during the season.
Mercedes have habitually done well, either keeping their nose in front or nudging further ahead.
Such is the progress in F1, the reality is the cars racing each other now are not the ones that will be racing each other in the season finale.