Valtteri Bottas began the brand new 2024 Formula 1 world championship season with a performance to forget. At the season-opener at Bahrain, he was only able to score a P19. This was a timid performance especially when considering that his very teammate, the still hugely-inexperienced Zhou Guanyu scored eleventh in the same contest.
However, Bottas would mark some improvement of sorts, if one could phrase it like that, in the very next race.
At the Jeddah-bound Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the talented Finn scored a seventeen. Teammate Guanyu, on this occasion, emerged behind Valtteri.
But for a driver as talented and now vastly experienced as Valtteri Bottas, better days are needed and rather urgently so.
There was a time where despite not having the fastest car around, Valtteri Bottas would work up some magic and pull up some aces on the track.
Take into consideration those exciting Williams years, where from the onset of 2014 until 2016, contending with the FW 36, Bottas would consistently notch up a top five finish.
Scoring six podiums in a Williams and that too, in his maiden year with the British constructor team proved that the Finn had the zeal and the craft to put up some noteworthy results.
As a matter of fact, recording only 4 DNF’s from no fewer than 59 Grands Prix further underlined Bottas’s consistency and ability to pull along with a key sense of purpose.
Finishing fourth, fifth and eighth in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively despite partnering a strong force in the form of Felipe Massa brought to life the very ardent fact that Bottas was a cool customer who seldom got under pressure.
His passion for racing and the ability to mould himself into an even stronger competitor was exemplified by his Mercedes stint, which began in 2017 and ended only after a half a decade run in 2021.
During this time Valtteri Bottas, who is still 34 and very much focused on further improving his and his team’s fortunes, faced unarguably, his greatest racing challenge yet.
Frankly, it’s one thing to be teaming alongside a big talent but quite frankly, an onerous task when you’re asked to compete beside a certain Lewis Hamilton, an all time legend and a reputed mega world champion.
Interestingly, each of his ten race wins came during this silvery period with the Silver Arrows.
But while Bottas was fast and consistent, he couldn’t deliver a world title to his team; a challenge that Hamilton aced with redoubtable efficiency and ruthless consistency.
All of which makes a strong case as to why deep within, the popular Finnish talent may be raring to go and return to some position of respectability and strength; something he’s quite struggled to manage ever since his current stint.
The erstwhile Alfa Romeo and current Kick Sauber have a decent, if not rampant, car that is but reliant on the errors and misjudgments made by its midfield rivals to prove a point.
Surely, Bottas has seen better days and faster cars before and it could be argued that his best moments on an F1 track have already happened.
But despite the weaknesses of the car and its obvious dearth of speed, an element that has caused similar woes for other talented men on the grid such as Ricciardo, Gasly and Ocon, Valtteri Bottas seems far from frustrated.
He recently opened up on his imminent plans and if he’d consider giving up sometime in the near future.
“For me, the motivation is the future. What is exciting is trying to get closer to the front, especially with this team. Sometimes, I do have to remind myself of the long-term goals. As it is sometimes tough when you’re fighting close to the back…My personal target is, one way or another, to get on the podium in the next two or three years,” admitted the Finn who would love to- but is distant- from a win.
Rather interestingly, Bottas cited the example of Fernando Alonso and lauded the Spanish racing titan for his commitment and endurance when making a point about hanging on in the gruellingly competitive sport.
However, what is also true is that Alonso has at his disposal a highly capable machine and one that speeds up rampantly, more often than not.
What is Bottas going to do in the current scheme of things and with the ever-persistent volatilities of the Driver Market not making things clear for what lies ahead in 2025?