Bottas, quietly impressing?

Williams had high expectations of Valtteri Bottas when he made his Formula 1 debut at the 2013 Australian Grand Prix and because of that, everyone else had high expectations of him too. But how is he faring so far?

(c) Octane Photographic

Whilst he currently sits 17^th in the standings with no points to his name, the first half of his rookie season has been quietly impressive.  And I don’t think I’m the only one that feels that way. The Finn has showed that he can overtake and race but also proved that he can take the fight to Maldonado despite lagging behind the Venezuelan in experience.

Winning the GP3 series in 2011 proved that he has the potential to make it to F1. The series is highly competitive and run with equal machinery so the best drivers really do rise to the top. However, some questioned his choice not to race in 2012 and to instead attend every Formula 1 race with the Williams squad as their reserve driver.

I don’t mean that in a way in which it wasn’t beneficial for him to shadow the Williams drivers. He managed to get a large number of free practice one sessions under his belt which was invaluable. He also got to see how the team worked and functioned alongside things like technical meetings, understanding the car and getting to know what it really takes to be a full time race driver in the series.

What I’m talking about is the race craft that he may have missed out on by not racing in 2012. He made his F1 debut with GP3 being the last series he raced in. It was a risk for Williams in some respects, to sign someone who had not tackled the likes of GP2 or Formula Renault 3.5 where the competitiveness and level increases above that of GP3 and where many feel race craft and the final touches to becoming a Formula 1 driver are polished up. Also it was the fact that he had not gone wheel to wheel with anyone since 2011. Would that impact his season?

So far it hasn’t, but it may have meant it took him a race or two to really get back into race mode and feel confident racing side by side with other drivers. He is a racing driver though, I’m sure they never lose it whether they are retired (i.e. Schumacher and his return) or they have had a bit of time away from racing.

(c) Octane Photographic

He hasn’t had the stand out season like rookies gone by such as Hamilton and Robert Kubica when they burst onto the scene, but there’s one big difference between Bottas and the two mentioned above; the car. Williams won a race last season but their 2013 has so far been disastrous thanks to a difficult and problematic car that is roughly two seconds off the front running pace. That has somewhat hidden the Finn’s charge and in my view that is why he has been quietly impressive and not just impressive.

Claire Williams and co. are working very hard to get Williams back at the front but it will be no short-term fix. This is a long term thing that will take years to complete and for now, Bottas has to work with the car he has. In doing so, I feel he has done extremely well and silently starred on a number of occasions alongside his hugely impressive stand-out qualifying lap in Canada – more on that later.

Going into the season there is no doubt that he was as prepared as he could be and a lot better prepped in comparison to the other rookies on the grid. The 23-year-old took part in the 2012 Young Driver Test alongside 15 FP1 outings and a number of test sessions and aero tests. He had gained plenty of experience and expectations were high, particularly from his own team which certainly piled on the pressure.

However he performed very well in Australia on his debut. He was on average half a second down on his team-mate during the three free practice sessions and finished 15^th, 18^th and 20^th respectively – the latter was a wet and disrupted session. But what else would you expect from someone going into their first race? Qualifying was similarly disrupted due to heavy rain and it was actually postponed after the first session.

Whilst we didn’t get to see much of Bottas during that first qualifying, he managed to get through to Q2 and actually out-qualify his team-mate on his debut due to Maldonado being eliminated in Q1. He managed to tackle the tricky conditions in both sessions well on route to a 16^th place grid slot, not bad for a debutant. The Finn had a good start to the race and managed to drive a consistent and error free race to 14^th place and his first F1 finish. It was even more impressive when put alongside Maldonado’s race where he ended up beaching his car in the gravel after a –what you could say – rather rookie error.

The next round of the season was in Malaysia and that’s a big test for the drivers anyway, let alone only your second career start. Being half a second behind his team-mate seemed to be an on-going trend in the early races. He was 16^th in first practice and again five tenths off Maldonado’s best time before breaking that record in second practice, finishing a lowly 19^th and some three seconds off the leading pace. He had made up time in the final practice though and finished a strong 15^th as he mixed it with the Sauber’s and Toro Rosso’s.

One thing that is very prominent in Valtteri’s driving is that he is so consistent and rarely makes errors. The Sepang International Circuit is a challenging one at best and he managed to drive it really well throughout the race weekend and perform to the best of his and the cars abilities. However his cars abilities could not get him out of Q1 and he qualified a poor 18^th – he just could not find the pace in the car during that session.

(c) Octane Photographic

However he managed to make up for it in the race by finishing a strong 11^th and out-racing fellow rookie Esteban Gutierrez – whom he has quite a strong rivalry with as they fight for best rookie. He also set the 12^th fastest lap and finished just a second shy of Vergne’s 10^th place which was mightily impressive. Again, his team-mate retired and so by round two he had a 100% record on beating the Venezuelan.

The learning curve continued in China where he was 17^th (two tenths off Maldonado), 16^th (one tenth ahead of Maldonado) and 15^th (one tenth off Maldonado) in the three practice sessions. Despite the promise he failed to make it through to the second qualifying session for the second race in a row, a disappointment and one that I was confused with after he showed promise in the practice sessions. However he proved yet again that he is a racer by finishing 13^th and ahead of Pastor after 56 laps of the Shanghai track. He even managed to post the third fastest lap along the way.

It was a good start to the next round in Bahrain after he finished 12^th in FP1. However he dropped to 17^th in FP2 and finished 15^th in FP3 so it was a mixed bag after the promise of the first session. However he was stronger in qualifying, avoiding the Q1 drop zone and finishing ahead of Vergne’s Toro Rosso for 15^th on the grid. In the Williams FW35, that was a good result.

Maldonado had a better race but Bottas managed to finish a respectable 15^th, 13 seconds down on his team-mate but ahead of Massa (who was recovering from an earlier incident) and Ricciardo. There was a nice break before F1’s return to Europe and Williams had high hopes for their upgrades. However plans didn’t work out and they continued to struggle during the race weekend. Still around two seconds off the pace, Bottas did show some positives with a seventh in FP3 before the dropping 10 places to drop out of Q1 in 17^th. It was in-fact a double Williams drop-out with Maldonado a tenth behind in 18^th – a terrible showing for the Grove based squad.

16^th place and a lap down was the best he could do with the car he had as they struggled on the high aero track. He was also some way off the cars ahead and it was a disappointment because many – including myself – expected Williams to make steps forward and for Bottas to feel a bit more confident at the Barcelona circuit due to the amount of testing has had done there. The next race on the calendar was Monaco, one of his favourite tracks and the most glamorous circuit that the F1 paddock visits. However it was back to normal in a way because the Williams duo languished in the high teens throughout the weekend.

(c) Octane Photographic

However they did both make it through to Q2 and it was a good lap from Bottas to go 14^th in the closing stages. That was quite an impressive performance in what was a tricky session on a drying track. The race yielded another decent result with 12^th place, ahead of rookie-rival Gutierrez and just a tenth off the more experienced Nico Hulkenberg. Maldonado unfortunately crashed out after contact with Max Chilton’s Marussia but it was a positive 78 laps for the 23-year-old on one of the sport’s most challenging tracks.

Canada though, that was the real breakthrough and we finally got a glimpse of the Valtteri Bottas that we were all expecting. We had to wait for a wet qualifying session to see him shine after a stunning and controlled lap to third on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix. It was a euphoric result but the team knew that it would be very difficult indeed to stay there with their mediocre dry-weather form.

He held his own in the early laps but dropped back at the start and found himself a distant seventh in the first stint. However strategy and a lack of pace in the dry meant that he dropped to a disappointing 14^th by the chequered flag, albeit ahead of Ricciardo, Maldonado and the back-markers. Despite the final result, there were lots of positives to take away for Bottas and I was so impressed with the way he raced during the Grand Prix and defended his position from drivers with far more experience and a faster car. That’s where I started to see a really good race driver coming through and his car control in the wet qualifying session was sublime.

The last two rounds in Britain and Germany were decent results too but what I have been impressed with the most is 1) his wet weather pace, 2) how he manages to finish every race in a consistent and mature manner, with very little errors and 3) how close he gets to his team-mate or even beating him out-right when he is in his rookie year and Maldonado has 48 starts to his name.

I must say - as the title suggests - that I have been quietly impressed by Valtteri and whilst the high expectations may not have been met, that’s because he doesn’t have the car to do so. I would go as far to say that if he was in a front-running team he could definitely fight for wins. Not yet, he needs more time to gain experience and develop as a racing driver but definitely in the future.

Watch out for Valtteri Bottas because I reckon he is one of the sports rising stars.