In his years in Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas he has never been competitive for the final victory. This is because the Finn – aside from talent – had no other qualities that instead stand out in Lewis Hamilton: race pace, coldness in ‘hot’ moments and efficiency in one-on-one. On Saturday, however, Bottas created headaches for the seven-time world champion by clawing 20 pole positions and often accusing a delay in the order of hundredths on the flying lap against a driver who has conquered 103 starts at the pole, a record frankly achievable with great difficulty.
Bottas will be in Alfa Romeo this year, and it is precisely the qualities on the flying lap that convinced team principal Frederic Vasseur to make this choice for the post-Kimi Raikkonen. “Valtteri had always had one-year contracts. Instead, we had to give it stability. It was essential to make him understand that we trusted him 100%. We saw what he was able to do in qualifying against Hamilton, which is the maximum reference, the highest bar. We wanted him to be our man: we give stability to him and he restores stability to the team“, These are the statements collected by the journalist Dieter Rencken for RacingNews365. “We need a point of reference that is totally integrated and committed to the project, who supports the team and can improve our performance: Valtteri can be the right man“.
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