Valtteri Bottas faces the open door and test of his life taking after his change to Mercedes for 2017. After four periods of strong exhibitions with Williams, the 27-year-old Finn has been compensated with each driver’s fantasy – a seat with the best team in Formula 1.
Notwithstanding an astounding slip in shape for Mercedes, Bottas will transform from being an intermittent platform guest to a race-victor and conceivably title contender this year. However, in new team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Bottas faces an enemy a long ways past anything he has encountered up until now. How he measures up will probably characterize whatever is left of his career.
Bottas won’t not be the most energizing of decisions for Mercedes. Fans far and wide would have wanted to see Hamilton fight McLaren’s Fernando Alonso once more, or go up against Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen, or Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. In any case, his interest to Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff is self-evident.
Bottas is Wolff’s endeavor to locate a like-for-like swap for German Nico Rosberg, who dropped Mercedes in the soil by declaring his retirement a year ago, five days subsequent to securing his first world title. What’s more, it’s not just about their fair hair or Finnish family line.
There have been flashes of splendor -, for example, qualifying third in the wet in an uncompetitive Williams in Canada in 2013 – that recommend a genuine ability. On the off chance that 2017 takes after the pattern of those outcomes, Hamilton can be relied upon to be serenely faster than Bottas. Maybe all the more astonishing is that those correlations recommend that not exclusively is Bottas not a match for Alonso and Hamilton, but rather he won’t not equivalent Rosberg either.
In any case, drivers’ shape does not generally specifically decipher crosswise over teams and opponents in as direct a mold as may be normal.
It is dependent upon Bottas to demonstrate the correlations wrong and snatch the open door with both hands.
Furthermore, by and large, the general recognition is Bottas’ record against Felipe Massa at Williams in the course of recent years is like Alonso’s against the Brazilian at Ferrari before that. In any case, the actualities don’t bear that out. While Bottas and Alonso beat Massa in both qualifying and races, the Spaniard’s preference over the Brazilian was essentially greater.
