Valtteri Bottas

Bottas started 2010 as the title favourite and repeated that Masters win to become the race’s first two-time winner. He also won at the Norisring and Oschersleben but third in the standings once more was something of a disappointment. He then switched from ART to Prema Powerteam to finish third in the end-of-season Macau GP. Bottas was already associated with Williams by now – working in its simulator during 2010.

GP3 title success and Formula 1 with Williams 

Back with ART for the 2011 GP3 Series, Bottas recovered from a slow start to win races at the last four events to clinch the title with a round to spare. He also won a British F3 race at Donington on a one-off return to the category with Robertson Räikkönen Racing. The season ended with two days testing a Williams FW33-Cosworth at Abu Dhabi. That led to Bottas being named as Williams’ reserve driver for 2012 and he was its Friday test driver at 15 Grands Prix.

He was promoted to the race team in 2013 although the former champions were at a low ebb as it restructured its engineering team. Despite that, Bottas out-qualified more experienced team-mate Pastor Maldonado 11-8 (including starting an impressive third on the grid in Canada) and he finished eighth at Austin.

Fourth in the 2014 World Championship 

The team was transformed in 2014 with Pat Symonds established as Chief Technical Officer, Mercedes-Benz engines powering the FW36 and Martini new title sponsors. Bottas responded by generally outperforming Ferrari refugee Felipe Massa as he finished an impressive fourth overall. He qualified on the front row and finished third in Austria before back-to-back second-place finishes at Silverstone and Hockenheim (from another front row start in Germany). Third again in Belgium, Russia and Abu Dhabi – Bottas appeared every inch a winner of the future.

Forced to miss the 2015 Australian GP with a back injury, Bottas returned two weeks later and was a regular in the top five both in qualifying and in the race – finishing third in Canada and Mexico. Another fine result was lost in Russia thanks to Kimi Räikkönen’s overly optimistic overtaking manoeuvre and Bottas slipped to fifth overall (behind his compatriot) by the end of the season.

2020 was no better despite once more taking the first race of the season in Austria. Hamilton recovered to dominate the following rounds, taking 11 victories to Bottas’s two. The Finn was retained for the 2021 season despite a strong showing by Mercedes junior George Russell who deputised for an ill Hamilton during the Sakhir Grand Prix. Russell pulled a great move on his temporary team-mate Bottas to take position in the closing stages, which proved to be an omen.

Bottas’s wane continued in a 2021 season that began late as a result of the Covid epidemic. In the second race of the season at Imola, he was once more fighting off Russell — now back in a Williams, which should have been no match for the Mercedes — and the pair collided after an aggressive move from the younger driver. Russell then jumped out of his car and slapped Bottas’s helmet, earning him a rebuke from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. It didn’t alter the future, however, and Bottas confirmed that he’d be leaving the team towards the end of the season, earning one final victory before vacating his seat for Russell.

New beginnings at Sauber

F1’s latest ‘Flying Finn’ found new life in 2022 after signing for the Alfa Romeo-branded Sauber team, despite suffering from numerous mechanical issues over the course of the season. Bottas was in touching distance of podium finishes early in the season, qualifying ahead of George Russell and just over three tenths of a second behind Lewis Hamilton. His one-lap pace was kept consistent on race day too, finishing inside the top ten in seven out of the first ten grands prix.

However, three consecutive retirements in Hungary, Belgium, and the Netherlands derailed any chance of a higher finish in the drivers’ standings, and Bottas eventually finished tenth with 49 points, considerably more than the six earned by rookie team-mate Zhou Guanyu.

Sauber’s decline

His first season with the team is currently the highlight of Bottas’s spell with Sauber. Its early success under the new 2022 regulations slipped away as better-funded teams developed their cars at a faster rate. A meagre ten-point haul was all he had to show for 2023, while Zhou once again scored six. Bare? Not as much as his ‘Bottass’ calendar for 2024 featuring the driver unclothed. Inspired by a 2022 Instagram picture that showed him swimming naked in a stream, the calendar $150,000 (£120,000) for the Movember charity appeal.

Bottas’s side projects were once more the highlight of 2024, as Sauber was rooted to the back of the grid, leaving its drivers almost powerless to compete for points. Ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Bottas starred in a TV ad for Uber, showing off a car that he had supposedly designed with a large helping of self-deprecation.

While he was a hit off track, Bottas’ struggles with Sauber continued as he failed to score a single point across the season. His only real highlight was an eleventh-place finish in Qatar.

For 2025 Bottas has elected to return to Mercedes in a reserve driver role, where he will support the growing talents of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.