He was brought into team to be inconsistant-to be less good driver than Ham;two star drivers fighting for title in same team result in crashes. He was projected to be a wingman. He agreed. He was paid ten times less than Hamilton. His duty was helping Hamilton to secure WDC, not to fight for one himself.He also agreed with that-othervise we would see him disobeying team orders to let Ham pass him. I don't know from what perspective he talks about success or failure.
It's not due to consistency why he lost to Hamilton.He was not good enough for a team like Merc. Not saying he is bad.Because all F1 drivers have ability.But compared to the rest he is pathetic.
Bottas' biggest failing was not being too slow - it was being unable to fight his way out of the midfield. Every single time he got bogged down. Contrast Lewis who effectively fought back 25 places from right at the back at sprint quali to winning the race.
@@danguee1 It must be noted that Hamilton had a car 1s quicker than anyone else even his own team mate. In general Bottas is too slow overall. Yes when he was stuck in midfield it was even worse.
He hasn't been aggressive enough and he was unlucky a lot. Plus, he was consistantly terrible in the wet. But he has 10 race wins, more than the vast majority of F1 drivers ever see, and he's been instrumental in winning 5 constructors titles. There's stuff to be proud of, and when he's older and retired I hope he reflects on it and sees that. Bottas's problem was that he was a Coulthard/Berger/Patrese type, the kind of solid no. 2 who usually picks up decent results and the odd win while supporting the no.1 in the team. That's not a bad thing to be, and if he'd seen himself in those terms he'd have probably been pretty pleased with his results overall. But he desperately wanted to be Rosberg, and he wasn't, and he can't forgive himself for that.
He had the pace, but his inconsistency along with his poor racecraft dragged him down. His poor starts weren’t any help either. He is amazing on one of his good days, but those good days unfortunately happen rarely.
Nah, his problem wasn't wanting to be a Rosberg, he said himself he didn't want to win with any interteam conflict, if he had a problem, it's just that, he wasn't willing to be aggressive and disobey. And people will push the contract as to why he wasn't aggressive but hey, so what, if you want a championship, take chances, sometimes you gotta break and hurt something to progress.
@@Firebolt1729 if you know VB,he kinda too tolerant in the start.i think it just 2021 hungary,his first crash at start.Really agree that he not aggresive enough
10 wins is awful in a duch dominating car. Barichello was much better number 2 driver, Gerhard Berger, Webber, Coultard, Frentzen and Irvine and many more.
He came up against a monster he couldn't kill. Still the fastest man alive around Sochi. And a hell of a good sport. Much respect Valteri. I feel bad for Zhou
Bottas definitely deserves respect ✊. To be able to make the man with the most poles look like a beginner so many times. Always see Valteri as a great driver
@@raceyrache8463 uh what? When has he made Lewis look like a beginner? Now let's count all the times when Lewis has literally made him look like Valtteri was driving a midfield car...
I absolutely disagree. As everyone knows, his speed is nearly unbeatable on his best days. But he rarely has those (because of his wildly varying mental condition). He should have been much more successful, constantly pushing Lewis as Nico did; but instead, Valterri ruined himself repeatedly. As Michael Schumacher said (roughly this) 'most drivers on the grid are mentally weak, and I do not respect them because of that'. Valterri is one of those mentally frail drivers, and even worse, he doesn't seem to realize his mentality is what's holding him back. He's so lost and ignorant to himself that he's admitting to studying everything he can about his driving, without learning anything from it. Then whenever he's asked a question and underperforming, he blames Lewis for being an unbeatable target, even though Valterri could beat him if he had the mentality. He's pathetic, mentally, for a competitive driver especially considering his talent and lifestyle. That's probably why many people have an instinctual disliking/disgust towards him. He really should be doing much better; and the only reason he isn't is himself.
He was a suppressed F1 driver at Mercedes, receiving winner support from your team as opposed to wingman support will stunt any driver. Mercedes was lucky he stuck around so long. We might get a huge surprise and see a whole new side of Bottas at Alfa Romeo.
@@Rahul-px3my I'm not convinced the same could be said. Perez had a good year coming in 4th behind Bottas in 3rd, with Bottas accumulating 36 more points in a highly competitive year. Over the last five years of racing Bottas has accumulated 1327 points to Perez 529 - that surely is racecraft. I know Perez was in lesser team but he was on Mercedes engines. Bottas seems to attract more criticism because he was always up there with the likes of Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel and Raikkonen. No one else came close like he did. Oh, and in the last 5 years Bottas topped Verstappen 3 times in the standings.
For me his biggest issue was losing places from the grid start and then his inability to catch and overtake through the field. He'd get stuck in a rut and then force the team to choose an alternative higher risk but lower percentage strategy. Not usually a strategy that complemented his team mate. I think deep down he is too conservative and not aggressive enough when racing. Clear running lap pace he was fine. A likeable chap though.
I couldnt agree more. There were so many situations where Bottas was stuck in the midfield for the entire race where Max and Lewis would have overtaken all of them in only a handful of laps. In my eyes he simply didnt have the extreme talent and racecraft of Max, Lewis, Alonso, Kimi in his prime, Schumacher, etc..
Yeah if Lewis finds himself in 10th at the start, the question is which podium place will he come in? With Bottas we're half expecting him to finish still in 10th.
Chris Hayes ironically enough, both times Bottas started from the absolute back of the pack (19th) he finished 3rd and 5th. Hamilton couldn’t make it to a podium from tenth in Turkey.
@@t1_hishin310 well done mate. god job picking out the one time hamilton didnt make it and the 2 times bottas did. The argument here is consistency. it believe you know what that means.
Think racecraft has kept Bottas from achieving a WDC. Nothing wrong with being amazing in qualifying, but he just never seemed to have consistent racecraft in the races he needed to help Ham or win
He was properly quick in qualifying. You’re right his race craft wasn’t there. He had the one lap pace but just couldn’t manage the tyres and keep the pace alive like Lewis.
his contract with merc is y he doesn't have a wdc, after nico challenged lewis and won lewlew had a cry and then bottas was given 1 year contracts meaning if he went for a title he would be sacked the following season. his role at merc is lewis' #2
The issue of Bottas is more or less the same the Red Bull #2 has faced since Riccardo left: being compared with one of best drivers in F1 history. Both Hamilton and Verstappen have very high peaks and they reach those peaks consistently, something that makes them the best. Could have Bottas achieved more? Sure, but there's no shame in getting beaten by such a competition. He should cherish the fact he could match those peaks, just not as consistently (at times for no fault of his own) and channel these thoughts in his drive for Alfa. After all, if Alfa manages to hand him a competitive car, he can achieve positive results
@@ActuallyJamesS Compared to Sainz, which also swapped from Renault to McLaren, did not manage to adapt as well. Still there is no doubt that Ricciardo is a fast driver, he just need to click with his car consistently and take cues from Norris (as he has been driving for the team since his debut in F1 and has more experience with the car). Actually, if both learn from one another they could very well become a killer duo for 2022 (assuming the team delivers a car capable of reaching the top spots)
I absolutely disagree. As everyone knows, his speed is nearly unbeatable on his best days. But he rarely has those (because of his wildly varying mental condition). He should have been much more successful, constantly pushing Lewis as Nico did; but instead, Valterri ruined himself repeatedly. As Michael Schumacher said (roughly this) 'most drivers on the grid are mentally weak, and I do not respect them because of that'. Valterri is one of those mentally frail drivers, and even worse, he doesn't seem to realize his mentality is what's holding him back. He's so lost and ignorant to himself that he's admitting to studying everything he can about his driving, without learning anything from it. Then whenever he's asked a question and underperforming, he blames Lewis for being an unbeatable target, even though Valterri could beat him if he had the mentality. He's pathetic, mentally, for a competitive driver especially considering his talent and lifestyle. That's probably why many people have an instinctual disliking/disgust towards him. He really should be doing much better; and the only reason he isn't is himself.
Don't forget that Bottas came to Mercedes from Williams, after a couple of seasons in which he constantly out-performed his team mate, and extracted more from the car than what it was really capable of. Now Mercedes have done the same again with Russell.
Bottas never extracted more from his Williams between 2014-2016... Those Williams in those years were actually really good cars. In 2014 they were actually the 2nd best team, 3rd best in 2015 and 4th best in 2016. Plus his teammate was a washed up out of his prime Massa that was also on his last years in F1, and he didn't outperform him like say Vettel and Alonso beat Kimi for example. Bottas was never supposed to be on that seat... Or rather, since teams like a number 1 and 2 in the team and not 2 stars, then yes, Bottas deserved that seat 100%, perfect team player. But driver skill and pace wise, he never deserved a top seat (top seat being Ferrari, Merc, Red Bull between 2017-2019).
One of my biggest hopes for this season is that Alfa Romeo has a good car and Bottas can have some success in it and bring the team out from the back of the grid. He seemed to lack the consistent aggressiveness that others possess every race and maybe being out from under Hamilton will help him out somehow.
To be honest VB accepted wing man role from Day 1 . Between 2014 to 2016 there was a good competition between Rosberg and Hamilton, and Rosberg finally got his WC in 2016. We didn’t see VB giving any competition to Hamilton in any of 5 years he was at Mercedes. Maybe Toto wanted him to be just a support person to Hamilton. But overall it’s sad that VB could not become world champion
The one year contracts were designed to keep him there as a number 2, without explicitly stating it in the contract. Toto knew what he was doing all along. If he gave him a multi year deal, Bottas wouldn't have felt obliged to obey the, "Valteri this is James" calls. And would have felt like he had more time to build momentum over a couple of seasons to make a real challenge.
Equally the way for him to get a multi year deal would have been to put on a proper challenge, pick up a world championship then you're too valuable to risk having on a one year.
@@AnalogFilmDiary He was literally turning up to a team that Hamilton had already been at for four years and won 2 titles with. Giving him one year to "put up a proper challenge", essentially means he would have had to be around equal on points around the half way mark, because after that, it's team orders time. Unreasonable in my opinion. Ok maybe you don't give him a multi year deal straight away, but after a year or two of one year deals, they should know what they're getting and show him some commitment.
@Will K you clearly have no clue about f1, Lewis was the teams boss "second son" he was favoured by the whole team because he was brittish. mclaren literally took a 150million dollar fine and got disqualified from the championship (another 100mil) because they favoured lewis. and as oldmate said the one year contracts for VB were designed so if he challenged lewis he would not get a seat for next year. why u ask? because when nico won in 2016 lewis had a huge cry to toto.
i mean if you are constantly told you cant race and mainly have to work on slowing the field down without being overtaken.... when you suddenly arent 1 minute ahead of the field, things will suck XD
@@vinnie8792 I don't think VB has ever slowed anybody down in 2021 except that 1 time he held back Max during a VSC or SC while waiting to go into the pits.
Some people think it's because of his time in formula Renault; he ran with such a tight budget that a DNF could put him out of multiple races, or even the whole season, so he developed a very safe (arguably timid) driving style. Idk if there's any truth to this, but it does make sense on the surface.
He's not the best wheel-to-wheel racer… I think that's his biggest weakness. Whenever he qualified poorly or received grid penalties, he rarely blasted through the field like Hamilton or Verstappen.
I absolutely disagree. As everyone knows, his speed is nearly unbeatable on his best days. But he rarely has those (because of his wildly varying mental condition). He should have been much more successful, constantly pushing Lewis as Nico did; but instead, Valterri ruined himself repeatedly. As Michael Schumacher said (roughly this) 'most drivers on the grid are mentally weak, and I do not respect them because of that'. Valterri is one of those mentally frail drivers, and even worse, he doesn't seem to realize his mentality is what's holding him back. He's so lost and ignorant to himself that he's admitting to studying everything he can about his driving, without learning anything from it. Then whenever he's asked a question and underperforming, he blames Lewis for being an unbeatable target, even though Valterri could beat him if he had the mentality. He's pathetic, mentally, for a competitive driver especially considering his talent and lifestyle. That's probably why many people have an instinctual disliking/disgust towards him. He really should be doing much better; and the only reason he isn't is himself.
In qualifying he was outstanding, he should have won more races based on how often he was on pole. Some of it must have been team orders, but I think he's also a lot like Montoya was - fast on his own, but not as good at dealing with traffic as some other drivers. If he competed in time-attack events, he'd be unbeatable.
That man can drive. He seems fairly laid back and that seems why he fell into the take one for the team role. Can't wait to see how he does we a new beginning as it were. As long as the car is competitive we should see him on the podium regularay.
I rally hope so, but I do remember similar things being said about Räikkönen when he went to Alfa, especially after the season Leclerc had just had there.
He can drive, he can’t race. He gets stuck behind someone and he will never take the agressive move, which is something drivers like Lewis and Max will happily do.
@@mulvihillmatt I think that was part of his team blocker hangups. If he becomes the main driver at AR we should see his aggression levels go up. I mean most of the time it was Hamilton in front of him. Wrecking your teammate and your team standing would make a driver back off a % or two. Although you could be right. We will have to wait and see.
Bottas is a good driver. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate him a solid 7. He is extremely good at qualifying and is near unbeatable on a one lap pace. Where he falls short is his defensive skills, consistency and adaptability. Specially in 2021, his lack of defending skill was shown pretty clearly, like his defense against Verstappen in Russia and when Yuki got past him in Abu Dhabi. His lack of consistency/his issue with translating a good qualifying to a race win, a good weekend to another successful weekend has been a running theme throughout his Mercedes tenure. His rigidity is also one of his biggest setbacks. Best example is his sole win in 2021(Turkey). He was on pole, had a good start and then he won dominantly. Therefore when he is in his comfort zone, he is very good. But add any setback, then he will struggle. All of these weaknesses come to light when competing against his teammate who happens to be one of the best of all time. He has had an unbelievable amount of bad luck. He has had many controversial team orders. But even if all of those instances were reversed, I doubt he would be able to beat Hamilton for a title. He is a great person and a genuinely good driver. But not World Championship winning material. I hope he does well at Alfa Romeo.
There was an interview on the Beyond The Grid podcast not a long while ago with Bottas on why he choose to join Alfa Romeo instead of what was (and still is) believed to be the safer bet with Williams. He wanted a clean slate, new challenge in his F1 career, which meant cutting whatever links he had with Mercedes. And while Williams are really on the up with fresh investments and better management structure (compared to Alfa Romeo's recent upheaval surrounding the failed Andretti takover and picking Guanyu Zhou as Bottas' teammate), they're still a Mercedes customer team and will continue this arrangement for the forseable future until at least the new engine regulations come into effect (if their results improve, they could potentially convince a new/returning manufacturer to join). Which as far as Bottas is concerned, doesn't cut it - had he chosen Williams, IMO he'd have been viewed as nothing more than a "Mercedes puppet", placed there to compensate them for taking George Russell away from them. And I understand why Bottas doesn't want to be viewed as another pawn in Toto Wolff's backstage games and by joining a non-Mercedes powered team in Alfa Romeo he can take the "Mercedes leash" off and race on his own terms
Yeah, a move to Williams would have been seen just like Kimi's swap with LeClerc, moving aside for a younger driver while you stay here and race until you get it out of your system... Not a good look.
By any reasonable measure, Bottas has been hugely successful. It's only in comparison to Hamilton that he falls short. That's an fantastic legacy to have.
Pretty hard to get race wins against your teammate when your team is always telling you to let him pass you. And Im sure he would have had alot more podiums if he wasnt constantly told to pit while he was in a podium position in order to try take the fastest lap away from another team.
I think he failed like Webber failed… As in, even if he was good enough, he was never going to be allowed to be the team leader. Albeit for very different reasons.
Bottas isn’t as strong a driver. That way Hamilton simply left the team no choice but to make Lewis number one. So many examples of these dynamics over the years. Schumacher Barrichello, Schumacher Massa, Hakkinen Coulthard etc. He had lots of opportunities to show he’s better but his challenges typically just fizzled out.
@@vin483 Agree, I like Webber but he messed up his one chance at the crown when he broke his shoulder. Also, Red Bull are pretty good at letting their drivers fight it out on track. More so than like a Ferrari and Mercedes.
@@maxmuller4551 I'm not sure that RB were completely at fault. He seemed a bit off his game in the latter part of the season after he broke his shoulder mountain biking. It was a real shame.
@@tanishchandane7558 it's true and I agree. But while I love Valtteri, he's actuallyy had a lot of chances to show what he can do but always seems to fall short :/ hence the "Valtteri, it's James"
I don't think he failed. He would never have been allowed to succeed with Lewis as his teammate, it's the same for Perez in Red Bull. Lewis and Max are the top dogs in their respective teams. He's a modern Rubens Barrichello.
He was a permanent #2 driver at Merc ... I don't think he ever stood a chance at drivers championship. He did great at his job in helping Merc win a record number of constructors championships.
Valterri’s job at Merc was to always come second when Lewis can come first. Due to Lewis’s mind boggling consistency this was more often the case than not. If you look right back to Hakkinen and Coulthard, or even Schumacher and Massa, then this is nothing new. Nice bloke, good wingman.
And this is why they've now got rid of him, he was no longer picking up those P2s when they should have been there for the taking. I'd certainly agree, nice bloke and a good wingman most of the time although sometimes he did seem to get his elbows out when he should be letting his team mate through and letting opponents by when he should really be getting his elbows out. A strange career but he is a human being and a race car driver and playing second fiddle all the time can't have been nice for the ego.
Bottas reminds me of Gerhard Berger. A great driver in his own right and one of the best on his good days, but simply no match for a generational teammate driver, whether it be Ayrton Senna or Lewis Hamilton.
They failed him. One year deals and "Valteri this is James..." - they try to pretend that he wasnt brought in do to EXACTLY what he did, be a great wingman. They had no intention of having 2 drivers competing against each other after Nico, and that is OBVIOUS.
Rubbish... the James episode was when Bottas was no longer in serious contention for the title. ANY team would do that. Look how many times Max's teammate (and every Toro Rosso driver) has to jump out of the way.
He literally said himself that the team did not have a clear number 1 and number 2 when the season would start but he simply couldn't keep up with Lewis. People make excuses for Bottas while he rightfully makes none for himself. Bottas isn't a "killer" like Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen are. Whenever he has to to keep up the aggression, he fails. I wish the man the best but it wasn't Mercedes handicapping him, it was himself.
He was hot sh¡t before he went to Mercedes too, Ferrari even had eyes on him. Perhaps the pressure at Mercedes was just too much for him. He's not innocent either, he never matched up to Hamilton enough. Look how Nando and Carlos and Seb did with the switch in the 1st year.
In terms of Number 2 drivers Bottas was one of, if not, the best you could get to this day. And if he had this car but not Hamilton as a teammate he would surely got one title.
In 2019 and 2020, anyone and their mothers would've won those titles with those 2 cars. If not for Hamilton, Rosberg would've likely been a 4 or 5x world champion... Mercedes is the best team in F1 period. It carries their drivers to an insane number of titles. Seeing Hamilton equalling Schumacher's numbers, but then you look at his wins and Michael's, and see how vastly difference their competition was... Just doesn't feel right. 5 championships given to Hamilton on a silver plate. And could've been 6 if he didn't lose to Rosberg. Actually could've been 7 if Max this year didn't outperform him across the season in the 2nd overall best car and even despite the bad luck he had.
@@grimm6jack you need to be a good driver to win championships even in a great car they weren’t just “handed” to him i don’t know what you expect when you put one of the best drivers of all time in the fastest f1 cars ever
@@SantoineBethel most of the time he was not even close to pass HAM. Those one or two times when he was given team orders wouldn't make difference for him.
Rubens would have been fired on the spot if he had refused to comply with team orders as it was explicit in his contract that he was to play number 2 to Michael. That's why *David Coulthard* turned down a Ferrari contract when they let *Irvine* walk at the end of the 1999 season.
@@Euclides287 I agree! Bottas would’ve been cut for Russell if he would’ve bucked. The writing was on the wall when Russell drove for Merc during Hamilton’s quarantine.
Valteri has always been quick and was very quick with Williams almost getting pole with them. Unfortunately Lewis might be the greatest racing driver to ever live and would always be a tough teammate
As a big VB fan thank you for such an incredibly objective video. Bottas stood up against the GOAT of F1 and emerged a great fighter and athlete from this battle. Lets just wish him a great season with alfa next year 💙
I feel like bottas is like ricardo they are championship level drivers but they came in at a time of pure dominance by one driver like the Schumacher era
Haha, Ricciardo left because it was clear Red Bull wanted to put all their eggs into Max. They haven’t won the constructors since 2013 and could have this year if Danny was in the sister car (if Horner let him race Max)
In the final analysis, he is a midpack driver that excelled in lower pressure teams like Williams but struggled at the front end with all the world watching. Like Pierre. Great qualifier, good at high speed corners, great in cold, low grip tracks. Naturally gifted driver. Good guy overall. Bad in low speed corners, doesn’t seem to be technically sharp in directing the team on set ups. Not a good overtaker or one who charges from the back. Merc not signing him to a 2 year contract at any time in the past may have mentally destabilized him - self doubts and questions from press during silly season every year.
The video fails to approach how the Mercedes team treats BOT in comparison to HAM. Also how many times he had to sacrifice his strategy or race to support HAM. This story is deeper but the video fails to approach “sensitive” subjects.
Really good point, but then again we unfortunately have to accept that most F1 yt channels are bias(sometimes unconciously) towards Britisch drivers, which is totally understandable and unavoidable.
Red Bull had the advantage in Abu that Tsunoda showed what he can do and eliminated Bottas from a strategic option for Mercedes. Perez could take care of Hamilton and Max could do his own thing. But yeah, you're right.
Or maybe Perez should've done what Bottas did and actually helped his team win a constructor's. Perez had 2 Podiums in the first 15 races and finished behind Bottas at the end despite Bottas having more DNFs, engine penalties, and poorer luck throughout the season.
Look forward to seeing him in Alfa, I just never understood how he would grab several poles and a few wins over Hamilton people would call Hamilton the Goat while Bottas would not be even top 10 drivers of the grid. Hamilton is better than Bottas but the gap isn't so large that Lewis can be the goat if Bottas is just average.
@@guquadros3 Yep. Team orders is why Bottas was outclassed by *Tsunoda* in Abu Dahbi. If only people who run Mercedes knew about driver performance as much as we - couch potato experts - do.
Cletus Spuckler people too silly to see the difference between champions and the rest. when has any world champion been constantly know to get stuck behind traffic, while their contemporaries blaze through the field. Such a fact was all too common for valterri sadly. If you can’t make short work of the midpack how can you challenge a race leader in track to win a title
It's because people choose to look down on him because in their minds Lewis is flawed and therefore beatable. Meanwhile they forget save for one other driver, Heikki Kovalainen, most of Lewis's teammates have been champions (or became one in Nico's case).
Single lap pace isn't everything. Bottas was great in qualifying but his race pace often left a lot to be desired whereas Hamilton was also great in qualifying and could keep that pace up for a whole race.
50 wins for Ham & 10 wins for Bot, really says it all about Bottas' tenure with Merc. He often wasn't agressive enough or just lacked pace compared to LH. Overall he was a solid no. 2 for Merc racking up a lot of podiums but obviously no racing driver makes into F1 to settle for second best in the team.
@@stellar6643 Webber, like Bottas, was a great qualifier but his hard work on Saturday was undone by his starts. Webber is notorious for having terrible starts.
Its reb bull not merc that have contractual number 2 drivers. Lauda wouldn't allow the team to have a number 2 at the start of the season, only if 1 driver pulled and advantage over the other in points were they favoured.
He either qualifies off the front or got pole and fell immediately back..in the race...he just never seemed to be able to make the most of opportunities when they were there, and he rarely created opportunities for himself to take adv. of to excel .... He's a solid fast driver and his bounce- back strength is impressive.. I wish him well.
Well having the best car for 5 years straight and only achieving 10 wins over that time span and never once being a serious title contender? It's pretty obvious that he failed.
While I now feel sad for him, I'll stick to my original opinion since 2018 that it was a waste to put him in that Merc seat. Yes it was highly favorable for Lewis since he knows no one can challenge him in the fastest car on the grid but the lack of competition especially in 2019 and 2020 was exacerbated by the fact that the only possible source of competition -- two Merc cars -- will always be lopsided in favor of Lewis. Whether it's VB's bad luck, inconsistency or team orders, it was just so bad and uninteresting for the sport to see time and time again this guy who's supposed to be in the same capable car try and fail. Which is why 2021 was really a blessing for F1. All the best for VB in AR.
Team orders only came after he dropped out of the points every session. He's a good driver but never good enough to beat Lewis. As for this season was it really that good.
Bottas, you have nothing to be ashamed of in your Mercedes time. In fans eyes you have not failed. You did exactly what you were supposed to do with that team and the team is clearly forever grateful for your services. If I recall, the last guy in Mercedes to mount a title charge against Lewis it ended up killing their friendship. Lewis and Toto obviously think very highly of you and your place in that teams history is set in stone. And if Alfa Romeo doesn't work out, America is waiting.
There are three things you need to be world champion in F1 1 A bloody good car and team 2 Be an above average driver 3 This being the most important as history has shown time and time again A LOT OF LUCK !!!!!!!!!!! Some will say you make your own luck and that is true but Lewis to be fair has had his fair share over time has he not ??
@@fablewalls Well he was lucky to have a father that worked very hard to give him the the chance He was very lucky to be noticed some great drivers were not He was lucky to be taken into a team that looked after him He was lucky Lauda convinced him to go to the Merc team He has been lucky to come out of some situations which are numerous in his racing carer you could even say he has been lucky to be given the gift he has No one gets through life without some luck some have more luck than others I am glad to say I am one of those lucky individuals the down side for Lewis he sadly does not seem to be liked not that that probably bothers him on his 40 mil sadly when you make a comment folk go on the offensive wonder why ??
@@allanhughes7859 I understand your point but I feel like you can say the exact same to literally every driver in F1 lol, maybe except for Alonso :^) "Max is lucky to have been born by parents with a lot of racing background, one being a former f1 driver" "Schumacher was very lucky to have even driven in F1 since he was only chosen to replace a driver that had been arrested" "Bottas was very lucky to be signed by Merc after Rosbergs shock retirement" etc etc. Just feels a bit nitpicky
@@alex_lll That's because he stayed where they wanted him: in second. Mercedes wanted a 1-2 not another squabble over first with lots of non finishes and missed opportunities.
@@phrtao it's not about "Mercedes wanted". He had every chance to challenge Lewis for first, unfortunately he wasn't good enough. He managed to to snatch some poles here and there, couple of race wins, but most of the time he was just lagging behind. He was second because of his racing.
Bottas has been the wing man. Merc has been testing stuff using Bottas' car. His existence is to help HAM to win. It is most obvious at the finishing stage last year when Merc kept changing engine on Bottas' car to figure out reliability issue. HAM got the rocket engine at the end.
VB77 is one of the elite drivers out there! I wonder how many times VB was in contention to win a race only to be suppressed by team orders or team strategy; there are a lot of podiums were he finished 2nd place to Ham’s 1st where this was evident. 50/10 win ratio between them should’ve been more like 35/25.
“He used his time at Mercedes to win more races than Juan Manuel Fangio”. Disingenuous statement. Fangio won 8 races in 12 attempts, a far superior percentage than both Lewis and Valtteri. Or any other Mercedes driver in history. There are many Mercedes drivers that did better overall than Valtteri: Caracciola, Lang, Rosberg, and Fangio. But he did do better than an aging Schumacher or Moss.
Lol... this was another lewis the great video, VB wasn't never bought into the team to challenge Lewis. He was always thought of as a wingman a sidekick no more no less!
Would you guys ever do any paid for content that is like a super technical breakdown of stuff like, car design, Aero changes, rules, behind the scenes team stuff, driver statistics and engine design and details?. I would really like some technical car stuff
Overall, his stats at Mercedes are pretty impressive. He just sometimes didn't appear aggressive enough, during certain races given the fact he was driving one of the top cars on the grid. Seemed to take him far longer to pass someone as compared to Lewis.
In his Beyond The Grid talk, he emphasised the pressure of 1 year contracts absolutely contributed to him not directly competing with Hamilton. His head was always on the chopping block if he upset Lewis like Nico did.
Bottas is arguably the fastest number two driver in history. To outqualify Hamilton 30% of the time is no mean feat -- and it's better than what Jenson Button managed at McLaren!
@@vijayshelke6565 I mean, if we only look at the points and disregard the context of the entire season, then yeah, Button finished only 2 points behind in 2012, but if you apply the same logic to the 2021 season, you'd think that Lewis was matching Max up until the last race, which obviously wasn't the case no? Just like Max in 2021, Lewis was very very unlucky, losing multiple wins/podiums through no fault of his own (and iirc, if added up, it could've won him the WDC) Yes I do know that luck is a massive factor in the sport, but my point is that looking at the final standings will never give you the proper context to compare drivers
@@raphael6273 Lewis was more unlucky than Max in 2021, people just ignore most of the bad luck Lewis gets, and ignore the good luck Max gets. You're right about Lewis' 2012 season though. It was very reminiscent of Kimi's 2005 season, with constant unreliability and incompetence from McLaren.
He is my favorite. Nice guy and fantastic driver. He has made lh the driver he is by constantly nipping at his heels. Never had multi year security at mb. I hope he can show all the doubters his real skills at Alfa.
While consistently has always been an issue I do think he’s another driver that lacks mental strength when the team doesn’t put him #1. Anytime you’re obviously the #2 driver it’s hard to keep momentum and mental strength. Happens to most drivers actually. He’s nowhere near as bad as people claim he is. In an odd way he’s the perfect wingman.
you could look at it in a different way... Bottas was just good enough for Hamilton to have a good benchmark that he knew he could beat... and having that confidence, whether it be on the friday or during the race would also encourage him to do better. And while it seems kind of cruel to keep someone around just as a benchmark, it seems to have worked wonders for Mercedes and Lewis.. but yes, that meant Bottas had to suffer as a result.
What a lovely lovely man, who has nothing to ever criticise himself about so hopefully from now on he receives the plaudits he so rightfully deserves, with a C team!
I have a lot of respect for Valterri, and he can certainly be pleased with what he has accomplished at Mercedes. I think the difference between him and Lewis, is that Lewis always seems to be able to get the most of the car no matter the track layout and/or conditions. As anyone who has or is an engineer can attest, these cars are a series of compromises. They try to make the car as good as it can be for all the varying track layouts and conditions, but you simply cannot design a car that will be great in every kind of corner, under all types of conditions, and on the straights too. It's simply not possible. So, it comes down to whether the driver can adapt the setup and their driving lines, steering, braking and throttle control to get the best lap times possible out of the car. That is what separates, in my mind, Lewis from just about every other driver on the grid. I watched an interview with Toto Wolf, when they were talking about the 2019 car, if I remember correctly, and how Lewis was the one that came out with the setup changes that finally made that car start to work, and it was completely against the engineering guidance. The engineers actually thought it would make the car perform worse, but they finally relented and tried what Lewis suggested, and it worked. That setup direction completely unlocked the cars potential, and it was Lewis that came up with it. I don't think Lewis gets as much credit as he actually deserves. With that, Valterri should hold his head up high, because if your second best, but your second best to one of the great talents that has ever been in F1, you have nothing to be ashamed of.
team orders were only given when he was out of a title race there was no point in his Mercedes career where the team stopped him from winning the championship
I'm bored of there being number 1 and number 2 drivers. F1 is way more exciting when you've got 2 world class drivers in the same car. Imagine if it was Hamilton and LeClerc in the Mercedes. And Verstappen and Alonso in the Red Bull.
I totally lost it when they showed the number of wins in comparison to the greats Fangio and Moss 🤦🏼♂️ Even Schumacher never in the contention on their cards because he's been with Mercedes practically after his career. What an idiotic argument 🤦🏼♂️🔫 Bottas and Hamilton are way below these greats. But some fools want to play irrelevant numbers game.
They never take into account the amount of times his race was compromised by Mercedes in favor of Lewis. Or howany times he was in a position to win only to suffer a tragedy in the pits
I think Bottas will enjoy his time at Alfa Romeo, where his skill and experience will be greatly appreciated and where he can truly help the team improve and evolve.
With these stats against Hamilton we cannot forget that very often he was told to back off for lewis’ sake, which is not right at all, who knows how many wins and pole positions he lost due to the team telling him to let Lewis go or giving him the worse strategy, as we all know the “valtteri it’s James” memes, I hope at alfa bottas can show his true colors and prove Mercedes wrong for getting rid of him.
He obviously had the talent on his day but that day would take the duration of half a season to get to. Hope nothing but the best for Vatteri at Alfa, he could prove a long term leader for the team in the years to come.
Unfortunately, his career in Mercedes was summed up in his last race, where Tsunoda did what he wanted with him in his car... He was so easy to overtake (2 times) and defend against him. As if he forgot he drives the best car. Yes, I know he had a slightly weaker engine than lewis, but Yuki had a worn engine too, he has a weaker car overall and still almost no experience. It is unacceptable that Valtteri was driving like this in such an important race. The problem is that whoever fights him usually wins. On a single lap, he can be great, but the races are quite often bad. The situation in Alfa will only make it worse...
@@adamb2619 I don't really understand - was it because he was supposed to finish the race, let the midfield rookie to overtake him just after the start on the same tires? He couldn't get close to him for over 20 laps, and after the pitstop, he rode a second ahead of him because Yuki had a longer stop... Bottas really looks scared as he has to fight for position.
You forget that Valtteri was mainly told to finish that race on points to secure the championship. Mercedes wasn't even planning on using as Hamilton help after Valtteri's weaker engine left him 6th in the qualifying. Yes, Tsunoda also had old engine but Tsunoda did have fresh softs at the end of the race. Lewis wasn't the only driver Mercedes forgot to call for a tyre change. And Valtteri could have easily come out of the pits ahead of Tsunoda if he did change tyres.
@@tommikivimaki3066 If you had listened to Bottas radio during the race, you would have known that the plan was to get as fast as possible to the top spots and fight for the podium. The engineer told him that overtaking Tsunoda would give make him a race. He had already told him that around 18-20 laps. After the safety car, he had orders to overtake Sainz. At the beginning of the race he was getting frequent updates on what was happening in the lead. And Yuki didn't even have a DRS and he had almost no slipstream bcs he was too far, and the overtaking was the result of Valtteri staring at Sainz only to have a higher exit speed to overtake him, and Tsunoda doesn't waste such gaps. Bottas could have easily prevented that from happening, but he was surprised.
@@hey2335 Yeah. Valtteri didn't expect Tsunoda to overtake him at that spot and it was a lunge from very far back. Those kind of lunges call for big balls from the maker of them and Tsunoda did do similar lunge back in Bahrain as well. Equally those kind of lunges can easily catch the defending driver off guard. And this wasn't the first time Bottas got caught off guard this season. In Russia he didn't expect Max to overtake him so he focused on Gasly ahead of him and was surprised to see Max next to him.
He has had the best car for 5 years. Yes, also in 2021. His results don’t lie. The number of times he was overtaken, and the way he allowed for that, are indicative of a mediocre driver. He is just average. And his personality matches the driving ability. Remember Bottas 2.0 ? That was utterly pathetic.
As a human being it would really really suck when you put your heart and soul into something and ends up being beaten hands down, its immensely annoying and demoralising where you cannot simply find any faults you have done to make this result no matter how critical/realistic you can be. I've been in many competitive scenes and only time commitments were my losses, I've not been in his situation but really couldn't imagine how I would react... I'd imagine alot more negative than Bottas would so hats off to the guy! Showing some real strength here.
If I had to summarize it quickly, I would say that he did not defend well when under attack and he wasn't aggressive enough when he was attacking a competitor. Maybe that was due to pressure by team management to avoid any loss of points by crashing, I don't know. But as Senna said, "if you see a gap and you don't go for it, you are no longer a racer."
Rosberg showed that if you are willing to sacrifice everything and aren’t intimidated by Lewis Hamilton, you can beat him. Rosberg wasn’t exactly a generational talent, but he out-qualified and beat Hamilton many times. Hamilton is not invincible. You’ll see this when George Russell (who hasn’t achieved 1% of what Lewis Hamilton has) will out-qualify Hamilton and beat him in many races.
Rosberg was out and out a dirty driver taking out Hamilton a few times. Would not have won the title otherwise and why he retired early. Rosberg saw the writing on the wall.
Anyone else remember that meme at the Italian GP podium ceremony, where Valtteri was watching Mclaren have an absolute ball and the caption read: "When a kid sees a functional loving family and realizes he's been abused?" That pretty much summed up how I felt about Valtteri's tenure at Mercedes. He never got a genuine chance to succeed because he had to keep compromising his races to feed Lewis' title runs. At other times he was just kinda...there during race sessions, and for a frontrunner team you can't ever just be...there (Imola, Sochi, Austin, Mexico City). With any luck his new tenure at Alfa Romeo is the breath of fresh air he needs
I dont understand why so much ppl bash mercedes for prefer Lewis over Bottas? Like... when we saw Bottas consistently beats lewis more than just one race in row? Most of the time he is just not that fast when matters the most. Yeah there was a occasionally slightly better performance than Lewis in some races, but not ever enough to be title contender. Like he wasnt on level like Rosberg was. Also it is normal one driver that wins and is fast more often than the other one...to be 1st pref than the other. After all its a team vs other teams. I dont see ppl complain when Max is getting helped by his teammate + 2 more drivers from sister's team. Last race in last season pretty much sums up the whole season Lewis alone vs Max and his 3 buddy's. Bottas no where near close to be a danger. Now u prob. will say he crashed in the back once and helped that way for lewis (witch is debatable) and that wouldnt happened if he was that good driver, he wouldve been right in front with lewis. But he wasnt. Funny part of this last race was that if bottas was what u think he was whole time for mercedes...Lewis would be 8 WC.
I gotta admit I understand that false hope notion very well. However after Spain 2019 i stopped having any sort of hope for him, it was clear he would never be able to beat Hamilton. Rosberg achieved more from '14-'16 than Bottas from '17-21 so....
It also doesn’t help when he is constantly on a recurring one year contract. Always the possibility that he could be dropped at the end of every season. It has to add a significant amount of pressure knowing that your seat is not guaranteed. Albon and Gasly serve as examples.
Being Lewis’s teammate pushed him to the limit of his capabilities as a driver. That's all you can ask of yourself, did I give all I could, was I the best that I could be? If you answer yes to those questions then be proud of what you achieved and continue striving to get better. There is always someone who is going to be better than you at any given time.
The dude was an average number two who won some races and got some polls on a championship winning team. Nothing to feel ashamed about, you did your job perfectly. The WDC is a glorified MVP award.
People do forget often that F1 is constructors competition before a drivers competition. The teams are bigger and more important than the pilots in the long run. I guess for the fans the drivers are a big deal because they're the main personalities racing for podiums at the end of the day.
He was the perfect team driver next to the best. He was unlucky many times, but never complained and got results and points for the team if things went south for Lewis. After the Rosberg vs Lewis years, the team needed a team player. Bottas had a hand in many teams championships. No failure there.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
I really respect Bottas’ ability to be that honest about coming up short in comparison to Lewis due to his own inconsistency
He was brought into team to be inconsistant-to be less good driver than Ham;two star drivers fighting for title in same team result in crashes.
He was projected to be a wingman.
He agreed.
He was paid ten times less than Hamilton.
His duty was helping Hamilton to secure WDC, not to fight for one himself.He also agreed with that-othervise we would see him disobeying team orders to let Ham pass him.
I don't know from what perspective he talks about success or failure.
It's not due to consistency why he lost to Hamilton.He was not good enough for a team like Merc. Not saying he is bad.Because all F1 drivers have ability.But compared to the rest he is pathetic.
Bottas' biggest failing was not being too slow - it was being unable to fight his way out of the midfield. Every single time he got bogged down. Contrast Lewis who effectively fought back 25 places from right at the back at sprint quali to winning the race.
@@danguee1 It must be noted that Hamilton had a car 1s quicker than anyone else even his own team mate. In general Bottas is too slow overall. Yes when he was stuck in midfield it was even worse.
He hasn't been aggressive enough and he was unlucky a lot. Plus, he was consistantly terrible in the wet. But he has 10 race wins, more than the vast majority of F1 drivers ever see, and he's been instrumental in winning 5 constructors titles. There's stuff to be proud of, and when he's older and retired I hope he reflects on it and sees that.
Bottas's problem was that he was a Coulthard/Berger/Patrese type, the kind of solid no. 2 who usually picks up decent results and the odd win while supporting the no.1 in the team. That's not a bad thing to be, and if he'd seen himself in those terms he'd have probably been pretty pleased with his results overall. But he desperately wanted to be Rosberg, and he wasn't, and he can't forgive himself for that.
He had the pace, but his inconsistency along with his poor racecraft dragged him down. His poor starts weren’t any help either. He is amazing on one of his good days, but those good days unfortunately happen rarely.
Nah, his problem wasn't wanting to be a Rosberg, he said himself he didn't want to win with any interteam conflict, if he had a problem, it's just that, he wasn't willing to be aggressive and disobey.
And people will push the contract as to why he wasn't aggressive but hey, so what, if you want a championship, take chances, sometimes you gotta break and hurt something to progress.
@@F1ll1nTh3BlanksAnother reason why VB isn’t a champion is because he’s too nice.
@@Firebolt1729 if you know VB,he kinda too tolerant in the start.i think it just 2021 hungary,his first crash at start.Really agree that he not aggresive enough
10 wins is awful in a duch dominating car. Barichello was much better number 2 driver, Gerhard Berger, Webber, Coultard, Frentzen and Irvine and many more.
He came up against a monster he couldn't kill. Still the fastest man alive around Sochi. And a hell of a good sport. Much respect Valteri. I feel bad for Zhou
he's going against a fast finn
Bottas definitely deserves respect ✊. To be able to make the man with the most poles look like a beginner so many times. Always see Valteri as a great driver
He's the fastest man in a Mercedes around Sochi that's for sure
@@raceyrache8463 uh what? When has he made Lewis look like a beginner? Now let's count all the times when Lewis has literally made him look like Valtteri was driving a midfield car...
I absolutely disagree. As everyone knows, his speed is nearly unbeatable on his best days. But he rarely has those (because of his wildly varying mental condition). He should have been much more successful, constantly pushing Lewis as Nico did; but instead, Valterri ruined himself repeatedly. As Michael Schumacher said (roughly this) 'most drivers on the grid are mentally weak, and I do not respect them because of that'. Valterri is one of those mentally frail drivers, and even worse, he doesn't seem to realize his mentality is what's holding him back. He's so lost and ignorant to himself that he's admitting to studying everything he can about his driving, without learning anything from it. Then whenever he's asked a question and underperforming, he blames Lewis for being an unbeatable target, even though Valterri could beat him if he had the mentality. He's pathetic, mentally, for a competitive driver especially considering his talent and lifestyle. That's probably why many people have an instinctual disliking/disgust towards him. He really should be doing much better; and the only reason he isn't is himself.
I have to be honest, I have a big soft spot for him, so seeing him struggle at times was hard. But I hope he gets back into his mojo at Alfa.
Same
When did he ever had mojo? He only shined against a washed up and tired Massa at Williams, but that's it.
He was a suppressed F1 driver at Mercedes, receiving winner support from your team as opposed to wingman support will stunt any driver. Mercedes was lucky he stuck around so long. We might get a huge surprise and see a whole new side of Bottas at Alfa Romeo.
@@mikolaygrudzien8764 same could be said for perez but he still manages to throw himself into the spotlight with his amazing racecraft
@@Rahul-px3my I'm not convinced the same could be said. Perez had a good year coming in 4th behind Bottas in 3rd, with Bottas accumulating 36 more points in a highly competitive year. Over the last five years of racing Bottas has accumulated 1327 points to Perez 529 - that surely is racecraft. I know Perez was in lesser team but he was on Mercedes engines. Bottas seems to attract more criticism because he was always up there with the likes of Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel and Raikkonen. No one else came close like he did. Oh, and in the last 5 years Bottas topped Verstappen 3 times in the standings.
For me his biggest issue was losing places from the grid start and then his inability to catch and overtake through the field. He'd get stuck in a rut and then force the team to choose an alternative higher risk but lower percentage strategy. Not usually a strategy that complemented his team mate. I think deep down he is too conservative and not aggressive enough when racing. Clear running lap pace he was fine. A likeable chap though.
I couldnt agree more. There were so many situations where Bottas was stuck in the midfield for the entire race where Max and Lewis would have overtaken all of them in only a handful of laps. In my eyes he simply didnt have the extreme talent and racecraft of Max, Lewis, Alonso, Kimi in his prime, Schumacher, etc..
Yeah if Lewis finds himself in 10th at the start, the question is which podium place will he come in? With Bottas we're half expecting him to finish still in 10th.
Chris Hayes ironically enough, both times Bottas started from the absolute back of the pack (19th) he finished 3rd and 5th. Hamilton couldn’t make it to a podium from tenth in Turkey.
@@t1_hishin310 well done mate. god job picking out the one time hamilton didnt make it and the 2 times bottas did. The argument here is consistency. it believe you know what that means.
Think racecraft has kept Bottas from achieving a WDC. Nothing wrong with being amazing in qualifying, but he just never seemed to have consistent racecraft in the races he needed to help Ham or win
He was properly quick in qualifying. You’re right his race craft wasn’t there. He had the one lap pace but just couldn’t manage the tyres and keep the pace alive like Lewis.
Not only that but he lacked any sort of risk taking. He was overly passive for 90% of the time
His mental condition, and how much it varies is what's destroying him. Just the same as most talented, but ultimately underwhelming athletes.
Watching him defend position should be considered a new form of torture
his contract with merc is y he doesn't have a wdc, after nico challenged lewis and won lewlew had a cry and then bottas was given 1 year contracts meaning if he went for a title he would be sacked the following season. his role at merc is lewis' #2
The issue of Bottas is more or less the same the Red Bull #2 has faced since Riccardo left: being compared with one of best drivers in F1 history. Both Hamilton and Verstappen have very high peaks and they reach those peaks consistently, something that makes them the best.
Could have Bottas achieved more? Sure, but there's no shame in getting beaten by such a competition. He should cherish the fact he could match those peaks, just not as consistently (at times for no fault of his own) and channel these thoughts in his drive for Alfa. After all, if Alfa manages to hand him a competitive car, he can achieve positive results
@@ActuallyJamesS Compared to Sainz, which also swapped from Renault to McLaren, did not manage to adapt as well. Still there is no doubt that Ricciardo is a fast driver, he just need to click with his car consistently and take cues from Norris (as he has been driving for the team since his debut in F1 and has more experience with the car).
Actually, if both learn from one another they could very well become a killer duo for 2022 (assuming the team delivers a car capable of reaching the top spots)
@@ActuallyJamesS If he was there, Daniel would have taken points off Max so then Max won’t become the champion.
@@Firebolt1729 better than a 2 horse race and i doubt that a well there would have been team orders
@@Firebolt1729 But at the same time, he'd have taken points off Hamilton, too, making it a proper three-way fight for the title
I absolutely disagree. As everyone knows, his speed is nearly unbeatable on his best days. But he rarely has those (because of his wildly varying mental condition). He should have been much more successful, constantly pushing Lewis as Nico did; but instead, Valterri ruined himself repeatedly. As Michael Schumacher said (roughly this) 'most drivers on the grid are mentally weak, and I do not respect them because of that'. Valterri is one of those mentally frail drivers, and even worse, he doesn't seem to realize his mentality is what's holding him back. He's so lost and ignorant to himself that he's admitting to studying everything he can about his driving, without learning anything from it. Then whenever he's asked a question and underperforming, he blames Lewis for being an unbeatable target, even though Valterri could beat him if he had the mentality. He's pathetic, mentally, for a competitive driver especially considering his talent and lifestyle. That's probably why many people have an instinctual disliking/disgust towards him. He really should be doing much better; and the only reason he isn't is himself.
Don't forget that Bottas came to Mercedes from Williams, after a couple of seasons in which he constantly out-performed his team mate, and extracted more from the car than what it was really capable of.
Now Mercedes have done the same again with Russell.
Expecting some "George this is James"
For a season or two, yes
history repeats itself, carlos has been pretty much at all the teams fernando has 😂
@@MaheshSharmaJ I don't know about that, since Lewis's contract is couple of years more and George is also a brit too.
Bottas never extracted more from his Williams between 2014-2016... Those Williams in those years were actually really good cars. In 2014 they were actually the 2nd best team, 3rd best in 2015 and 4th best in 2016. Plus his teammate was a washed up out of his prime Massa that was also on his last years in F1, and he didn't outperform him like say Vettel and Alonso beat Kimi for example. Bottas was never supposed to be on that seat...
Or rather, since teams like a number 1 and 2 in the team and not 2 stars, then yes, Bottas deserved that seat 100%, perfect team player. But driver skill and pace wise, he never deserved a top seat (top seat being Ferrari, Merc, Red Bull between 2017-2019).
One of my biggest hopes for this season is that Alfa Romeo has a good car and Bottas can have some success in it and bring the team out from the back of the grid. He seemed to lack the consistent aggressiveness that others possess every race and maybe being out from under Hamilton will help him out somehow.
To be honest VB accepted wing man role from Day 1 . Between 2014 to 2016 there was a good competition between Rosberg and Hamilton, and Rosberg finally got his WC in 2016. We didn’t see VB giving any competition to Hamilton in any of 5 years he was at Mercedes. Maybe Toto wanted him to be just a support person to Hamilton. But overall it’s sad that VB could not become world champion
The one year contracts were designed to keep him there as a number 2, without explicitly stating it in the contract. Toto knew what he was doing all along. If he gave him a multi year deal, Bottas wouldn't have felt obliged to obey the, "Valteri this is James" calls. And would have felt like he had more time to build momentum over a couple of seasons to make a real challenge.
Equally the way for him to get a multi year deal would have been to put on a proper challenge, pick up a world championship then you're too valuable to risk having on a one year.
@Will K yeah but did mclaren constantly order him to compromise his race for alonso?
@@AnalogFilmDiary He was literally turning up to a team that Hamilton had already been at for four years and won 2 titles with. Giving him one year to "put up a proper challenge", essentially means he would have had to be around equal on points around the half way mark, because after that, it's team orders time. Unreasonable in my opinion. Ok maybe you don't give him a multi year deal straight away, but after a year or two of one year deals, they should know what they're getting and show him some commitment.
I would agree but I just don’t think bottas had what it took to fight for a title, he doesn’t have the aggression or consistency
@Will K you clearly have no clue about f1, Lewis was the teams boss "second son" he was favoured by the whole team because he was brittish. mclaren literally took a 150million dollar fine and got disqualified from the championship (another 100mil) because they favoured lewis. and as oldmate said the one year contracts for VB were designed so if he challenged lewis he would not get a seat for next year. why u ask? because when nico won in 2016 lewis had a huge cry to toto.
VB just doesn't have any aggression to his driving. He just drives his race ends up where he ends up. Best example is Russia 2021.
i mean if you are constantly told you cant race and mainly have to work on slowing the field down without being overtaken.... when you suddenly arent 1 minute ahead of the field, things will suck XD
@@vinnie8792 I don't think VB has ever slowed anybody down in 2021 except that 1 time he held back Max during a VSC or SC while waiting to go into the pits.
Racecraft is by far Valtteri’s biggest weakness.
@@vinnie8792 They were always allowed to race, only if Lewis was the clear frontrunner would VB be told to be a #2
Some people think it's because of his time in formula Renault; he ran with such a tight budget that a DNF could put him out of multiple races, or even the whole season, so he developed a very safe (arguably timid) driving style. Idk if there's any truth to this, but it does make sense on the surface.
He's not the best wheel-to-wheel racer… I think that's his biggest weakness. Whenever he qualified poorly or received grid penalties, he rarely blasted through the field like Hamilton or Verstappen.
I absolutely disagree. As everyone knows, his speed is nearly unbeatable on his best days. But he rarely has those (because of his wildly varying mental condition). He should have been much more successful, constantly pushing Lewis as Nico did; but instead, Valterri ruined himself repeatedly. As Michael Schumacher said (roughly this) 'most drivers on the grid are mentally weak, and I do not respect them because of that'. Valterri is one of those mentally frail drivers, and even worse, he doesn't seem to realize his mentality is what's holding him back. He's so lost and ignorant to himself that he's admitting to studying everything he can about his driving, without learning anything from it. Then whenever he's asked a question and underperforming, he blames Lewis for being an unbeatable target, even though Valterri could beat him if he had the mentality. He's pathetic, mentally, for a competitive driver especially considering his talent and lifestyle. That's probably why many people have an instinctual disliking/disgust towards him. He really should be doing much better; and the only reason he isn't is himself.
In qualifying he was outstanding, he should have won more races based on how often he was on pole. Some of it must have been team orders, but I think he's also a lot like Montoya was - fast on his own, but not as good at dealing with traffic as some other drivers. If he competed in time-attack events, he'd be unbeatable.
That man can drive. He seems fairly laid back and that seems why he fell into the take one for the team role. Can't wait to see how he does we a new beginning as it were. As long as the car is competitive we should see him on the podium regularay.
I rally hope so, but I do remember similar things being said about Räikkönen when he went to Alfa, especially after the season Leclerc had just had there.
He can drive, he can’t race. He gets stuck behind someone and he will never take the agressive move, which is something drivers like Lewis and Max will happily do.
Everybody who competes in F.1 can drive. But that is simply the entry level.
@@mulvihillmatt I think that was part of his team blocker hangups. If he becomes the main driver at AR we should see his aggression levels go up. I mean most of the time it was Hamilton in front of him. Wrecking your teammate and your team standing would make a driver back off a % or two. Although you could be right. We will have to wait and see.
@@allenmontrasio8962 Oh I don't think Bottas is anywhere near entry level. When I said can drive I was complaining him to the top driver demographic.
Bottas is a good driver. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate him a solid 7. He is extremely good at qualifying and is near unbeatable on a one lap pace. Where he falls short is his defensive skills, consistency and adaptability. Specially in 2021, his lack of defending skill was shown pretty clearly, like his defense against Verstappen in Russia and when Yuki got past him in Abu Dhabi. His lack of consistency/his issue with translating a good qualifying to a race win, a good weekend to another successful weekend has been a running theme throughout his Mercedes tenure. His rigidity is also one of his biggest setbacks. Best example is his sole win in 2021(Turkey). He was on pole, had a good start and then he won dominantly. Therefore when he is in his comfort zone, he is very good. But add any setback, then he will struggle. All of these weaknesses come to light when competing against his teammate who happens to be one of the best of all time. He has had an unbelievable amount of bad luck. He has had many controversial team orders. But even if all of those instances were reversed, I doubt he would be able to beat Hamilton for a title. He is a great person and a genuinely good driver. But not World Championship winning material. I hope he does well at Alfa Romeo.
There was an interview on the Beyond The Grid podcast not a long while ago with Bottas on why he choose to join Alfa Romeo instead of what was (and still is) believed to be the safer bet with Williams. He wanted a clean slate, new challenge in his F1 career, which meant cutting whatever links he had with Mercedes. And while Williams are really on the up with fresh investments and better management structure (compared to Alfa Romeo's recent upheaval surrounding the failed Andretti takover and picking Guanyu Zhou as Bottas' teammate), they're still a Mercedes customer team and will continue this arrangement for the forseable future until at least the new engine regulations come into effect (if their results improve, they could potentially convince a new/returning manufacturer to join). Which as far as Bottas is concerned, doesn't cut it - had he chosen Williams, IMO he'd have been viewed as nothing more than a "Mercedes puppet", placed there to compensate them for taking George Russell away from them. And I understand why Bottas doesn't want to be viewed as another pawn in Toto Wolff's backstage games and by joining a non-Mercedes powered team in Alfa Romeo he can take the "Mercedes leash" off and race on his own terms
Yeah, a move to Williams would have been seen just like Kimi's swap with LeClerc, moving aside for a younger driver while you stay here and race until you get it out of your system...
Not a good look.
By any reasonable measure, Bottas has been hugely successful. It's only in comparison to Hamilton that he falls short. That's an fantastic legacy to have.
Agreed its akin to Schumacher vs Barichello.
Mate, he drove the most superior cars in the history of F1. Any of the other dudes could have delivered the same
And Russell.
@@borki20 I agree with you
Comparison to his team mate is the most reasonable measure and he has performed quite poorly.
Pretty hard to get race wins against your teammate when your team is always telling you to let him pass you. And Im sure he would have had alot more podiums if he wasnt constantly told to pit while he was in a podium position in order to try take the fastest lap away from another team.
I think he failed like Webber failed… As in, even if he was good enough, he was never going to be allowed to be the team leader. Albeit for very different reasons.
Not really, he just isnt as good as lewis in terms of racing
No, they both just weren’t good enough to be team leaders
Bottas isn’t as strong a driver. That way Hamilton simply left the team no choice but to make Lewis number one. So many examples of these dynamics over the years. Schumacher Barrichello, Schumacher Massa, Hakkinen Coulthard etc. He had lots of opportunities to show he’s better but his challenges typically just fizzled out.
@@vin483 Agree, I like Webber but he messed up his one chance at the crown when he broke his shoulder. Also, Red Bull are pretty good at letting their drivers fight it out on track. More so than like a Ferrari and Mercedes.
@@maxmuller4551 I'm not sure that RB were completely at fault. He seemed a bit off his game in the latter part of the season after he broke his shoulder mountain biking. It was a real shame.
I mean, if I had a knife at my throat constantly, I don't think I would have performed at my best consistently....
I just want him to be happy at Alfa.
But if you performed at your best consistently, the knife wouldn't be there anymore.
You wouldn’t be able to perform at a top team then
@@null_spacex You have a good point, but the "Valtteri, it's James" didn't help....
@@tanishchandane7558 it's true and I agree. But while I love Valtteri, he's actuallyy had a lot of chances to show what he can do but always seems to fall short :/ hence the "Valtteri, it's James"
I don't think he failed. He would never have been allowed to succeed with Lewis as his teammate, it's the same for Perez in Red Bull. Lewis and Max are the top dogs in their respective teams. He's a modern Rubens Barrichello.
If he entered the team and beat Lewis from the start it would be different. Just look how Charles dethroned seb
Or Kimi with Ferrari
@@ChrisMisMYhandle agree. The first two years were very important
@@LooseWheelFilms not exactly, Kimi won a title and was happy with that, well as happy as Kimi can be! I do know what your saying though.
@@EyeInTheSkypaulmcmenamin I meant with his stint as seb’s teamate
He was a permanent #2 driver at Merc ... I don't think he ever stood a chance at drivers championship.
He did great at his job in helping Merc win a record number of constructors championships.
Valterri’s job at Merc was to always come second when Lewis can come first. Due to Lewis’s mind boggling consistency this was more often the case than not. If you look right back to Hakkinen and Coulthard, or even Schumacher and Massa, then this is nothing new. Nice bloke, good wingman.
Sometimes!!!!
And this is why they've now got rid of him, he was no longer picking up those P2s when they should have been there for the taking. I'd certainly agree, nice bloke and a good wingman most of the time although sometimes he did seem to get his elbows out when he should be letting his team mate through and letting opponents by when he should really be getting his elbows out. A strange career but he is a human being and a race car driver and playing second fiddle all the time can't have been nice for the ego.
VB is an absolute legend, I have loved his poise since the Williams days.
I have much respect for Valtteri, he's a great driver. I hope the coming shakeup sees him and his car competitive enough to challenge for wins.
Botas is a fast driver I think his weakness was not being aggressive enough while fighting for a place in race
Bottas reminds me of Gerhard Berger. A great driver in his own right and one of the best on his good days, but simply no match for a generational teammate driver, whether it be Ayrton Senna or Lewis Hamilton.
They failed him. One year deals and "Valteri this is James..." - they try to pretend that he wasnt brought in do to EXACTLY what he did, be a great wingman. They had no intention of having 2 drivers competing against each other after Nico, and that is OBVIOUS.
well said..
Fair point. However, if he was faster he would have gotten more that 1 year contracts.
Rubbish... the James episode was when Bottas was no longer in serious contention for the title. ANY team would do that. Look how many times Max's teammate (and every Toro Rosso driver) has to jump out of the way.
He literally said himself that the team did not have a clear number 1 and number 2 when the season would start but he simply couldn't keep up with Lewis. People make excuses for Bottas while he rightfully makes none for himself. Bottas isn't a "killer" like Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen are. Whenever he has to to keep up the aggression, he fails. I wish the man the best but it wasn't Mercedes handicapping him, it was himself.
He was hot sh¡t before he went to Mercedes too, Ferrari even had eyes on him. Perhaps the pressure at Mercedes was just too much for him.
He's not innocent either, he never matched up to Hamilton enough. Look how Nando and Carlos and Seb did with the switch in the 1st year.
He failed to rosberg Lewis, I hope Russell can.
Russell will mop the floor with Hamilton
Russell's hungry, he's definitely more of a Rosberg than a Bottas. I think if he does beat Lulu then that will really be what makes him retire.
In terms of Number 2 drivers Bottas was one of, if not, the best you could get to this day.
And if he had this car but not Hamilton as a teammate he would surely got one title.
In 2019 and 2020, anyone and their mothers would've won those titles with those 2 cars. If not for Hamilton, Rosberg would've likely been a 4 or 5x world champion... Mercedes is the best team in F1 period. It carries their drivers to an insane number of titles. Seeing Hamilton equalling Schumacher's numbers, but then you look at his wins and Michael's, and see how vastly difference their competition was... Just doesn't feel right. 5 championships given to Hamilton on a silver plate. And could've been 6 if he didn't lose to Rosberg. Actually could've been 7 if Max this year didn't outperform him across the season in the 2nd overall best car and even despite the bad luck he had.
@@grimm6jack you need to be a good driver to win championships even in a great car they weren’t just “handed” to him i don’t know what you expect when you put one of the best drivers of all time in the fastest f1 cars ever
Checo was a better number 2 than Bottas, struggling with the car, on his first year in a new team. Stop the copium, Bottas ain't got it.
His weakness was that he was too nice. Nico went turned heel, got his championship, and retired. Rubens should’ve done the same at Ferrari.
It "too nice" a some code word for "not as good as teammate"?
@@alex_lll It means challenge your teammate for the Title. There were races he could’ve won but was given team orders to let HAM pass to win.
@@SantoineBethel most of the time he was not even close to pass HAM. Those one or two times when he was given team orders wouldn't make difference for him.
Rubens would have been fired on the spot if he had refused to comply with team orders as it was explicit in his contract that he was to play number 2 to Michael. That's why *David Coulthard* turned down a Ferrari contract when they let *Irvine* walk at the end of the 1999 season.
@@Euclides287 I agree! Bottas would’ve been cut for Russell if he would’ve bucked. The writing was on the wall when Russell drove for Merc during Hamilton’s quarantine.
Great summery and video. Pretty spot on.
Valteri has always been quick and was very quick with Williams almost getting pole with them. Unfortunately Lewis might be the greatest racing driver to ever live and would always be a tough teammate
As a big VB fan thank you for such an incredibly objective video. Bottas stood up against the GOAT of F1 and emerged a great fighter and athlete from this battle. Lets just wish him a great season with alfa next year 💙
I feel like bottas is like ricardo they are championship level drivers but they came in at a time of pure dominance by one driver like the Schumacher era
Haha, Ricciardo left because it was clear Red Bull wanted to put all their eggs into Max. They haven’t won the constructors since 2013 and could have this year if Danny was in the sister car (if Horner let him race Max)
Fantastic video. I'm looking forward to what Valtteri can do in the Sauber. Keep up the good work.
In the final analysis, he is a midpack driver that excelled in lower pressure teams like Williams but struggled at the front end with all the world watching. Like Pierre.
Great qualifier, good at high speed corners, great in cold, low grip tracks. Naturally gifted driver. Good guy overall.
Bad in low speed corners, doesn’t seem to be technically sharp in directing the team on set ups. Not a good overtaker or one who charges from the back.
Merc not signing him to a 2 year contract at any time in the past may have mentally destabilized him - self doubts and questions from press during silly season every year.
Great vid and commentary. But @5:08 was the best part, for me.
The video fails to approach how the Mercedes team treats BOT in comparison to HAM. Also how many times he had to sacrifice his strategy or race to support HAM.
This story is deeper but the video fails to approach “sensitive” subjects.
Really good point, but then again we unfortunately have to accept that most F1 yt channels are bias(sometimes unconciously) towards Britisch drivers, which is totally understandable and unavoidable.
@@seb9940 yeep! Sad.
What Perez did in Abu Dhabi is what Bottas should've done regularly in 2021 season
Red Bull had the advantage in Abu that Tsunoda showed what he can do and eliminated Bottas from a strategic option for Mercedes. Perez could take care of Hamilton and Max could do his own thing. But yeah, you're right.
Or maybe Perez should've done what Bottas did and actually helped his team win a constructor's. Perez had 2 Podiums in the first 15 races and finished behind Bottas at the end despite Bottas having more DNFs, engine penalties, and poorer luck throughout the season.
🙄🙄🙄
@@t1_hishin310 the keyword i use is "Abu Dhabi", i well aware that Perez does worse than Bottas in helping constructor championship.
@@hey2335 in advantage wise, merc (mainly lewis) was blitzing Max with 12s gap. But we both know the issue is at Bottas
Look forward to seeing him in Alfa, I just never understood how he would grab several poles and a few wins over Hamilton people would call Hamilton the Goat while Bottas would not be even top 10 drivers of the grid. Hamilton is better than Bottas but the gap isn't so large that Lewis can be the goat if Bottas is just average.
bottas getting pole but failing to convert it into a race win is a result of team orders.
@@guquadros3 Yep. Team orders is why Bottas was outclassed by *Tsunoda* in Abu Dahbi.
If only people who run Mercedes knew about driver performance as much as we - couch potato experts - do.
Cletus Spuckler people too silly to see the difference between champions and the rest. when has any world champion been constantly know to get stuck behind traffic, while their contemporaries blaze through the field. Such a fact was all too common for valterri sadly. If you can’t make short work of the midpack how can you challenge a race leader in track to win a title
It's because people choose to look down on him because in their minds Lewis is flawed and therefore beatable. Meanwhile they forget save for one other driver, Heikki Kovalainen, most of Lewis's teammates have been champions (or became one in Nico's case).
Single lap pace isn't everything. Bottas was great in qualifying but his race pace often left a lot to be desired whereas Hamilton was also great in qualifying and could keep that pace up for a whole race.
50 wins for Ham & 10 wins for Bot, really says it all about Bottas' tenure with Merc. He often wasn't agressive enough or just lacked pace compared to LH. Overall he was a solid no. 2 for Merc racking up a lot of podiums but obviously no racing driver makes into F1 to settle for second best in the team.
He wanted to win, Mercedes wanted him in second. Also his first laps after a good qualifying were horrible.
He’s the new Mark Webber😂
@@Firebolt1729 I don’t get it
@@stellar6643 Webber, like Bottas, was a great qualifier but his hard work on Saturday was undone by his starts. Webber is notorious for having terrible starts.
Its reb bull not merc that have contractual number 2 drivers. Lauda wouldn't allow the team to have a number 2 at the start of the season, only if 1 driver pulled and advantage over the other in points were they favoured.
@@ActuallyJamesS They didnt care to a certain point in the season, but it gets to a point where your 7 time world champion is favored.
He either qualifies off the front or got pole and fell immediately back..in the race...he just never seemed to be able to make the most of opportunities when they were there, and he rarely created opportunities for himself to take adv. of to excel ....
He's a solid fast driver and his bounce- back strength is impressive.. I wish him well.
Well having the best car for 5 years straight and only achieving 10 wins over that time span and never once being a serious title contender? It's pretty obvious that he failed.
He never had the best car. Lewis had the best car. No 2 teammates have identical cars.
@@quigglyz you have any prove of that statement? Lmao
His major weakness, he’s too kind and gentle
While I now feel sad for him, I'll stick to my original opinion since 2018 that it was a waste to put him in that Merc seat. Yes it was highly favorable for Lewis since he knows no one can challenge him in the fastest car on the grid but the lack of competition especially in 2019 and 2020 was exacerbated by the fact that the only possible source of competition -- two Merc cars -- will always be lopsided in favor of Lewis. Whether it's VB's bad luck, inconsistency or team orders, it was just so bad and uninteresting for the sport to see time and time again this guy who's supposed to be in the same capable car try and fail. Which is why 2021 was really a blessing for F1. All the best for VB in AR.
Team orders only came after he dropped out of the points every session. He's a good driver but never good enough to beat Lewis. As for this season was it really that good.
Bottas, you have nothing to be ashamed of in your Mercedes time. In fans eyes you have not failed. You did exactly what you were supposed to do with that team and the team is clearly forever grateful for your services. If I recall, the last guy in Mercedes to mount a title charge against Lewis it ended up killing their friendship. Lewis and Toto obviously think very highly of you and your place in that teams history is set in stone. And if Alfa Romeo doesn't work out, America is waiting.
There are three things you need to be world champion in F1 1 A bloody good car and team 2 Be an above average driver 3 This being the most important as history has
shown time and time again A LOT OF LUCK !!!!!!!!!!! Some will say you make your own luck and that is true but Lewis to be fair has had his fair share over time has he not ??
So, he has no talent then, yet Mercedes pay him $40million a year… why, because he’s lucky?
@@fablewalls always read the script before making a comment I ref to point 2
@@allanhughes7859 - so tell me about all this “luck” he’s had?
@@fablewalls Well he was lucky to have a father that worked very hard to give him the
the chance He was very lucky to be noticed
some great drivers were not He was lucky to be taken into a team that looked after him He was lucky Lauda convinced him to go to the Merc team He has been lucky to come out of some situations which are numerous in his racing carer you could even say he has been lucky to be given the gift he has No one gets through life without some luck some have more luck than others I am glad to say I am one of those lucky individuals the down side for Lewis he sadly does not seem to be liked not that that probably bothers him on his 40 mil sadly when you make a comment folk go on the offensive wonder why ??
@@allanhughes7859 I understand your point but I feel like you can say the exact same to literally every driver in F1 lol, maybe except for Alonso :^)
"Max is lucky to have been born by parents with a lot of racing background, one being a former f1 driver"
"Schumacher was very lucky to have even driven in F1 since he was only chosen to replace a driver that had been arrested"
"Bottas was very lucky to be signed by Merc after Rosbergs shock retirement"
etc etc.
Just feels a bit nitpicky
PLEASE keep the content coming! Having f1 withdrawals and need to find a fix daily. Thnx 👍🏼
The fact is Mercedes’ didn’t want him in first. They showed that over and over and over again.
Oh yeah, of course, didn't want him so much that kept him for 5 years :)
@@alex_lll That's because he stayed where they wanted him: in second. Mercedes wanted a 1-2 not another squabble over first with lots of non finishes and missed opportunities.
@@phrtao it's not about "Mercedes wanted". He had every chance to challenge Lewis for first, unfortunately he wasn't good enough. He managed to to snatch some poles here and there, couple of race wins, but most of the time he was just lagging behind.
He was second because of his racing.
The last part of the last sentence was the most important part of the overview. Which was brilliant by the way...
I wanna know the mechanical dnfs bottas had vs Hamiltons.
And also the total amount of “Valtteri, it’s James…” calls
Bottas engine usage vs Hamilton also...
Bottas has been the wing man. Merc has been testing stuff using Bottas' car. His existence is to help HAM to win. It is most obvious at the finishing stage last year when Merc kept changing engine on Bottas' car to figure out reliability issue. HAM got the rocket engine at the end.
you gys doing so good i rly like your vid
keeps going
VB77 is one of the elite drivers out there! I wonder how many times VB was in contention to win a race only to be suppressed by team orders or team strategy; there are a lot of podiums were he finished 2nd place to Ham’s 1st where this was evident. 50/10 win ratio between them should’ve been more like 35/25.
“He used his time at Mercedes to win more races than Juan Manuel Fangio”.
Disingenuous statement.
Fangio won 8 races in 12 attempts, a far superior percentage than both Lewis and Valtteri. Or any other Mercedes driver in history.
There are many Mercedes drivers that did better overall than Valtteri: Caracciola, Lang, Rosberg, and Fangio. But he did do better than an aging Schumacher or Moss.
because mercedes want him to be a "team player" that's all...
...And redbull did'n want perez and webber to be a team player and ferrari did'n want to use massa as a wingman to alonso?,,,oh please
Thank you for great videos and big Respect from Croatia...
Lol... this was another lewis the great video, VB wasn't never bought into the team to challenge Lewis. He was always thought of as a wingman a sidekick no more no less!
Would you guys ever do any paid for content that is like a super technical breakdown of stuff like, car design, Aero changes, rules, behind the scenes team stuff, driver statistics and engine design and details?. I would really like some technical car stuff
He played the part of Checco well... if merc had 2 Alpha driver's like Nico and Ham, there would be too much tension in the garage
yes and since merc as a team had such an experience during nico so it was obvious they dont want that to happen again
Overall, his stats at Mercedes are pretty impressive. He just sometimes didn't appear aggressive enough, during certain races given the fact he was driving one of the top cars on the grid. Seemed to take him far longer to pass someone as compared to Lewis.
Total crap. He knew from the start that he is nr2 driver. That is why he got the contract.
In his Beyond The Grid talk, he emphasised the pressure of 1 year contracts absolutely contributed to him not directly competing with Hamilton. His head was always on the chopping block if he upset Lewis like Nico did.
Bottas is arguably the fastest number two driver in history. To outqualify Hamilton 30% of the time is no mean feat -- and it's better than what Jenson Button managed at McLaren!
You must have missed the Senna/Prost duo.....
Um hello Jenso was consistently was with lewis and he beat him 2011 and finished 2 points behind in 2012
@@vijayshelke6565 I mean, if we only look at the points and disregard the context of the entire season, then yeah, Button finished only 2 points behind in 2012, but if you apply the same logic to the 2021 season, you'd think that Lewis was matching Max up until the last race, which obviously wasn't the case no?
Just like Max in 2021, Lewis was very very unlucky, losing multiple wins/podiums through no fault of his own (and iirc, if added up, it could've won him the WDC)
Yes I do know that luck is a massive factor in the sport, but my point is that looking at the final standings will never give you the proper context to compare drivers
@@JacobStevens13 Who are you calling a "number two driver"? Senna or Prost? 😂😂😂
@@raphael6273 Lewis was more unlucky than Max in 2021, people just ignore most of the bad luck Lewis gets, and ignore the good luck Max gets.
You're right about Lewis' 2012 season though. It was very reminiscent of Kimi's 2005 season, with constant unreliability and incompetence from McLaren.
He is my favorite. Nice guy and fantastic driver. He has made lh the driver he is by constantly nipping at his heels. Never had multi year security at mb. I hope he can show all the doubters his real skills at Alfa.
While consistently has always been an issue I do think he’s another driver that lacks mental strength when the team doesn’t put him #1. Anytime you’re obviously the #2 driver it’s hard to keep momentum and mental strength. Happens to most drivers actually. He’s nowhere near as bad as people claim he is. In an odd way he’s the perfect wingman.
He has Played a similar role to Coulthard but in an era of massively improved relatability. It will be interesting to see how he gets on next year.
Bottas will dominate for Alfa Romeo next year
Against a rookie. Yes I would think so.
you could look at it in a different way... Bottas was just good enough for Hamilton to have a good benchmark that he knew he could beat... and having that confidence, whether it be on the friday or during the race would also encourage him to do better. And while it seems kind of cruel to keep someone around just as a benchmark, it seems to have worked wonders for Mercedes and Lewis.. but yes, that meant Bottas had to suffer as a result.
What a lovely lovely man, who has nothing to ever criticise himself about so hopefully from now on he receives the plaudits he so rightfully deserves, with a C team!
I have a lot of respect for Valterri, and he can certainly be pleased with what he has accomplished at Mercedes. I think the difference between him and Lewis, is that Lewis always seems to be able to get the most of the car no matter the track layout and/or conditions. As anyone who has or is an engineer can attest, these cars are a series of compromises. They try to make the car as good as it can be for all the varying track layouts and conditions, but you simply cannot design a car that will be great in every kind of corner, under all types of conditions, and on the straights too. It's simply not possible. So, it comes down to whether the driver can adapt the setup and their driving lines, steering, braking and throttle control to get the best lap times possible out of the car. That is what separates, in my mind, Lewis from just about every other driver on the grid. I watched an interview with Toto Wolf, when they were talking about the 2019 car, if I remember correctly, and how Lewis was the one that came out with the setup changes that finally made that car start to work, and it was completely against the engineering guidance. The engineers actually thought it would make the car perform worse, but they finally relented and tried what Lewis suggested, and it worked. That setup direction completely unlocked the cars potential, and it was Lewis that came up with it. I don't think Lewis gets as much credit as he actually deserves. With that, Valterri should hold his head up high, because if your second best, but your second best to one of the great talents that has ever been in F1, you have nothing to be ashamed of.
He was hired to be the lapdog, to be the wingman and to not challenge Sir Lulu. Happy for Valteri that he’s out of that miserable situation.
I root for him all the time, such a gentleman.
Great Video.
Bottas had to give up so much just for Lewis thru the 5 years cause of team orders so I feel Bottas had a lot taken away
team orders were only given when he was out of a title race there was no point in his Mercedes career where the team stopped him from winning the championship
I mean no disrespect to Bottas, but he was very fortunate indeed to have the position he had for as long as he did and he should be grateful for it.
I'm bored of there being number 1 and number 2 drivers.
F1 is way more exciting when you've got 2 world class drivers in the same car.
Imagine if it was Hamilton and LeClerc in the Mercedes. And Verstappen and Alonso in the Red Bull.
I totally lost it when they showed the number of wins in comparison to the greats Fangio and Moss 🤦🏼♂️
Even Schumacher never in the contention on their cards because he's been with Mercedes practically after his career.
What an idiotic argument 🤦🏼♂️🔫
Bottas and Hamilton are way below these greats.
But some fools want to play irrelevant numbers game.
They never take into account the amount of times his race was compromised by Mercedes in favor of Lewis. Or howany times he was in a position to win only to suffer a tragedy in the pits
I think Bottas will enjoy his time at Alfa Romeo, where his skill and experience will be greatly appreciated and where he can truly help the team improve and evolve.
Nope Alpha Romeo is a retirement home for has beens
With these stats against Hamilton we cannot forget that very often he was told to back off for lewis’ sake, which is not right at all, who knows how many wins and pole positions he lost due to the team telling him to let Lewis go or giving him the worse strategy, as we all know the “valtteri it’s James” memes, I hope at alfa bottas can show his true colors and prove Mercedes wrong for getting rid of him.
If you look it up, these instances were only AFTER he was no longer in the title fight
To put it simply... Bottas has never been more than above average driver and to be frank that is exactly what team LH wanted. Not another Rosberg!
He obviously had the talent on his day but that day would take the duration of half a season to get to. Hope nothing but the best for Vatteri at Alfa, he could prove a long term leader for the team in the years to come.
Unfortunately, his career in Mercedes was summed up in his last race, where Tsunoda did what he wanted with him in his car... He was so easy to overtake (2 times) and defend against him. As if he forgot he drives the best car. Yes, I know he had a slightly weaker engine than lewis, but Yuki had a worn engine too, he has a weaker car overall and still almost no experience. It is unacceptable that Valtteri was driving like this in such an important race.
The problem is that whoever fights him usually wins. On a single lap, he can be great, but the races are quite often bad. The situation in Alfa will only make it worse...
He also needed to finish the race to claim the constructors championship
@@adamb2619 I don't really understand - was it because he was supposed to finish the race, let the midfield rookie to overtake him just after the start on the same tires? He couldn't get close to him for over 20 laps, and after the pitstop, he rode a second ahead of him because Yuki had a longer stop... Bottas really looks scared as he has to fight for position.
You forget that Valtteri was mainly told to finish that race on points to secure the championship. Mercedes wasn't even planning on using as Hamilton help after Valtteri's weaker engine left him 6th in the qualifying. Yes, Tsunoda also had old engine but Tsunoda did have fresh softs at the end of the race. Lewis wasn't the only driver Mercedes forgot to call for a tyre change. And Valtteri could have easily come out of the pits ahead of Tsunoda if he did change tyres.
@@tommikivimaki3066 If you had listened to Bottas radio during the race, you would have known that the plan was to get as fast as possible to the top spots and fight for the podium. The engineer told him that overtaking Tsunoda would give make him a race. He had already told him that around 18-20 laps. After the safety car, he had orders to overtake Sainz. At the beginning of the race he was getting frequent updates on what was happening in the lead. And Yuki didn't even have a DRS and he had almost no slipstream bcs he was too far, and the overtaking was the result of Valtteri staring at Sainz only to have a higher exit speed to overtake him, and Tsunoda doesn't waste such gaps. Bottas could have easily prevented that from happening, but he was surprised.
@@hey2335 Yeah. Valtteri didn't expect Tsunoda to overtake him at that spot and it was a lunge from very far back. Those kind of lunges call for big balls from the maker of them and Tsunoda did do similar lunge back in Bahrain as well. Equally those kind of lunges can easily catch the defending driver off guard. And this wasn't the first time Bottas got caught off guard this season. In Russia he didn't expect Max to overtake him so he focused on Gasly ahead of him and was surprised to see Max next to him.
My observation has been that Valtteri's 'troughs' have generally been in cold or damp conditions where he has struggled to switch on the tyres.
He has had the best car for 5 years. Yes, also in 2021. His results don’t lie. The number of times he was overtaken, and the way he allowed for that, are indicative of a mediocre driver. He is just average. And his personality matches the driving ability. Remember Bottas 2.0 ? That was utterly pathetic.
As a human being it would really really suck when you put your heart and soul into something and ends up being beaten hands down, its immensely annoying and demoralising where you cannot simply find any faults you have done to make this result no matter how critical/realistic you can be.
I've been in many competitive scenes and only time commitments were my losses, I've not been in his situation but really couldn't imagine how I would react... I'd imagine alot more negative than Bottas would so hats off to the guy! Showing some real strength here.
Bottas is only an average driver in F1. So its no surprise he didnt perform well in comparison to Hamilton.
If I had to summarize it quickly, I would say that he did not defend well when under attack and he wasn't aggressive enough when he was attacking a competitor. Maybe that was due to pressure by team management to avoid any loss of points by crashing, I don't know. But as Senna said, "if you see a gap and you don't go for it, you are no longer a racer."
Rosberg showed that if you are willing to sacrifice everything and aren’t intimidated by Lewis Hamilton, you can beat him. Rosberg wasn’t exactly a generational talent, but he out-qualified and beat Hamilton many times. Hamilton is not invincible. You’ll see this when George Russell (who hasn’t achieved 1% of what Lewis Hamilton has) will out-qualify Hamilton and beat him in many races.
true
I'm sure this will age well
Rosberg was out and out a dirty driver taking out Hamilton a few times. Would not have won the title otherwise and why he retired early. Rosberg saw the writing on the wall.
lets face it, no one that has ever raced an F1 can has been invincible. Everyones beatable, all of the greats have been beaten, including lewis
He did fail. There's no easy or fair way to say it. He had the best car for 5 seasons or at least the joint best every single year at Mercedes.
Anyone else remember that meme at the Italian GP podium ceremony, where Valtteri was watching Mclaren have an absolute ball and the caption read: "When a kid sees a functional loving family and realizes he's been abused?" That pretty much summed up how I felt about Valtteri's tenure at Mercedes. He never got a genuine chance to succeed because he had to keep compromising his races to feed Lewis' title runs. At other times he was just kinda...there during race sessions, and for a frontrunner team you can't ever just be...there (Imola, Sochi, Austin, Mexico City). With any luck his new tenure at Alfa Romeo is the breath of fresh air he needs
I dont understand why so much ppl bash mercedes for prefer Lewis over Bottas? Like... when we saw Bottas consistently beats lewis more than just one race in row? Most of the time he is just not that fast when matters the most. Yeah there was a occasionally slightly better performance than Lewis in some races, but not ever enough to be title contender. Like he wasnt on level like Rosberg was. Also it is normal one driver that wins and is fast more often than the other one...to be 1st pref than the other. After all its a team vs other teams. I dont see ppl complain when Max is getting helped by his teammate + 2 more drivers from sister's team. Last race in last season pretty much sums up the whole season Lewis alone vs Max and his 3 buddy's. Bottas no where near close to be a danger. Now u prob. will say he crashed in the back once and helped that way for lewis (witch is debatable) and that wouldnt happened if he was that good driver, he wouldve been right in front with lewis. But he wasnt. Funny part of this last race was that if bottas was what u think he was whole time for mercedes...Lewis would be 8 WC.
I gotta admit I understand that false hope notion very well. However after Spain 2019 i stopped having any sort of hope for him, it was clear he would never be able to beat Hamilton. Rosberg achieved more from '14-'16 than Bottas from '17-21 so....
the RACE Pushing out content like Max pushes Lewis off the road!
It also doesn’t help when he is constantly on a recurring one year contract. Always the possibility that he could be dropped at the end of every season. It has to add a significant amount of pressure knowing that your seat is not guaranteed. Albon and Gasly serve as examples.
VB was simply fulfilling the terms of his employment; to play second fiddle to LH. That's the only way LH can win. Remember Rosberg.
Horrendous take
Same as all teams do. There is always the better driver who has the best chance of winning it all.
Yeah Rosberg was so much better than lewis. he even managed to lose 3-1 across 4 seasons to lewis. Impressive numbers XD
Being Lewis’s teammate pushed him to the limit of his capabilities as a driver. That's all you can ask of yourself, did I give all I could, was I the best that I could be? If you answer yes to those questions then be proud of what you achieved and continue striving to get better. There is always someone who is going to be better than you at any given time.
The dude was an average number two who won some races and got some polls on a championship winning team. Nothing to feel ashamed about, you did your job perfectly. The WDC is a glorified MVP award.
People do forget often that F1 is constructors competition before a drivers competition. The teams are bigger and more important than the pilots in the long run.
I guess for the fans the drivers are a big deal because they're the main personalities racing for podiums at the end of the day.
He was the perfect team driver next to the best. He was unlucky many times, but never complained and got results and points for the team if things went south for Lewis. After the Rosberg vs Lewis years, the team needed a team player. Bottas had a hand in many teams championships. No failure there.
I am first, wow
Cool beans
Correct
@3:08, that's from the video game.