Valtteri Bottas will start the 2022 season as Alfa Romeo’s first driver and for the occasion he will reunite with team principal Vasseur with whom he has already collaborated in Formula 3 and GP3. In the latter category, Bottas won the title in 2011 and then made the leap to Formula 1 in 2013 with Williams.
According to Vasseur, knowing already a driver from the preparatory categories can prove to be an advantage as already seen in 2018 with Charles Leclerc. Even at the time, the Alfa Romeo Sauber team principal had to deal in Formula 1 with a driver already managed in GP3 at the time of the ART Grand Prix.
“It is important to know each other deeply and have full mutual trust. I’ve seen this in the past with Charles. When you work with a rider in the minor categories you get to know that person well and you don’t have to spend a lot of time talking to him and understanding his expectations ”.
“The type of relationship you can build in the minor categories is completely different from the one you can build in Formula 1”.
Valtteri Bottas, Lotus ART, Frederic Vasseur, ART Team Principal
Photo by: Drew Gibson / Motorsport Images
Furthermore, according to Vasseur, Bottas will be able to emerge in his new Alfa Romeo adventure by no longer finding himself in the shadow of Lewis Hamilton as happened during his time with Mercedes.
The Finn, author of 10 wins with the Star, was instrumental in allowing the Brackley team to continue to establish itself in the Constructors’ classification, but often, according to team principal Sauber, his performances were not evaluated correctly.
“When everything is perfect he can fly and on some weekends he was faster than Lewis”.
“In the final part of last season he did an incredible job and I believe that the awareness of already having a contract in his pocket and being sure of being part of a new project made him get on track with greater relaxation. I think it helped him a lot ”.
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