Why has Valtteri Bottas' form improved at Mercedes?

Valtteri Bottas

Why has Bottas' form improved at Mercedes?

He already has more race wins this year than in 2018.

Martin Macdonald

Thursday 9 May 2019 21:32

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The 2018 Formula 1 season was not a happy one for Valtteri Bottas. The Finn struggled throughout the campaign despite having the same car as team-mate and eventual driver’s championship winner Lewis Hamilton, finishing with zero Grand Prix victories.

This season, however, has seen a change in Bottas, who already has two victories in 2019 from just four races. For him, there isn’t a special formula for the upturn in form - he says it comes from working on small details with his backroom team.

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“Of course there are many things in this sport that can affect [things] – sometimes you’re more lucky, sometimes very much less so,” Bottas said ahead of this weekend’s Spanish GP.

“But, I honestly think for me, why I have been able to improve year by year is really work with the team, work with my ability, focus on all the single details. If we work hard, it’s only a matter of time until things will start to go right.”

One change we know of is the appointment of a different race engineer, Riccardo Musconi, who replaced Tony Ross.

“When you have new people around, it makes you think about some things differently,” Bottas continued.

“It can open up some new routes on you’re thinking about set-up and direction. It started really well, we have been learning a lot as an engineering team all the time – it’s getting better and better.”

After the four races in Australia, Bahrain, China, and Azerbaijan, Bottas leads the driver’s championship by a single point ahead of Hamilton, and he is, naturally, happy with the change in fortune from last season.

“I’m obviously pleased with how the season has started, compared to recent ones,” the Finn admitted.

“That is very positive. Also one of the things is as a team, the level we have been able to perform in these first four races has been really impressive. It’s not only me, it also the team. And it’s a good battle with Lewis at the moment.”

The 29-year-old was quick to dispute any suggestions that Mercedes have been lucky in 2019, though, as Ferrari’s season hasn’t got going yet.

“We have done a great job as a team – the level we have been performing at we deserve these results," he said. "Sometimes we might get lucky. Like Bahrain, it was down to other teams’ failures, we got a one-two. But it also means we were the most reliable car at that race, so it’s not only luck, it’s mostly how the team is performing.”