F1 End of Season Report: Rate the Grid - Valtteri Bottas

[Paul Jeffrey]

New for 2017 Mercedes recruit and third place championship finisher Valtteri Bottas is next in line for our 'Rate the Grid' series of articles.

Nico Rosberg surprised the Formula One fraternity when he made the bold decision to walk away from Grand Prix racing at the close of the 2016 season following his World Championship success, leaving the dominant German team very little time to find a replacement driver to partner Lewis Hamilton for the new year.

With Bottas available to move from Williams and under contract to Mercedes manager Toto Wolff, it was perhaps not the most surprising decision for the three pointed star to acquire the services of the highly rated Finnish driver for the new season. With little time to acclimatise to his new found home and up against one of the strongest drivers in Grand Prix racing, how do you think Bottas faired during the 2017 season?

Vote now to tell us how you rate 2017 Formula One season of Valtteri Bottas, and leave a comment below!

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[aka2k]

I seriously expected better from him after the pace he showed on Williams. Maybe this year.

 

[Sky]

 

[LeSunTzu]

Nobody could reasonably expect Bottas to step into Rosberg's shoes at the last minute and be as successful for his first season ever in a top team. He dominated both Hamilton and Vettel fair and square several times in 2017, and that was quite a feat - even if he never made a fuss about it.

 

[Giovaneveterano]

I gave him a 8.
He was outstanding in the first half of the season, very fast and consistent: he scored almost the same points as Lewis despite the broken engine in Spain.
Then somehow he lose the pace, suffering consistently 5 tenths from Lewis in qualifying and fighting for way less prestigious places.
The last, I have to say PERFECT, weekend saved his season and worth a +1 just that.

 

[Michel Forest]

8. He was not nearly as bad as some (I'm looking at you, Jacques Villeneuve) say he was. He had to adapt to a new team. His main problem is that he's paired with one of the fastest drivers on the grid. 2018 will be the real test. My feeling is that he's a very good driver but not a potential WC.

 

[Enagee]

Am sure Verstapen done a mid season swap with Kvyat and drove like a Boss.
I like Botas but let's not give too many excuses, Alonso, Vettel, Ricardo and Max would have pushed Lewis in the same car.. 7 is the highest score.

 

[Esploratore]

Yes, I gave him 7 as well, a very good first part of the season, better than I was expecting, never thought he'd be close to hamilton, then a 2nd part not as good, likely struggling to adapt to the car's evolutions. Overall did better than raikkonen, no question, to whom I gave 6, and worse than ricciardo and verstappen.

 

[Nick Gregory]

He ain't Rosberg, that's for sure. It was nice to finally see him win, even if it took getting into a Mercedes to do it.

 

[snyperal]

I rated him an 8. Great first season! Let's see how he gets on this year, a potential title winner?

 

[Fat Rich]

Patchy. Some great drives, a couple of embarrassing boo boos, quite a few races where he looked a bit ordinary.

Hopefully he'll get fully up to speed and be challenging for the lead in 2018, but I'm yet to be convinced he'll be beating Lewis Hamilton very often.

 

[apex11]

Proof that any of the F1 drivers could reasonably be expected to win in a Merc. Not as easy as Nico had it due to Ferrari being a bit closer this time around.
He was fighting against a lazy Kimi an inspired Vettel and Lewis, so 3rd in WDC was about as bad as he could get away with.
Should really of come 2nd in WDC though in that car....

I do think the whole engine mode thing is a real thing, i don;t think for the latter part of season bar last race he had the same engine modes to use as little chin Lewis.
Don't care if you don't agree with that opinion, but we know full well come Brazil Lewis had a better spec engine than his own team mate....

But he won races... under pressure......but in the best car...

But if he were in the McLaren he would of been no where and most likely looking at Formula E...as it is he gets another season in the best team / car.....

 

[Jan Larsen]

7. Noone in their right mind would expect him to be equal or beat Hamilton in his first year, especially after being thrown head first into the team with only a few months of preperation and never having driven the car. His season can be devided into two halves - before and after the summer break. Before he was brilliant, out qualifying and racing Hamilton on a number of occasions, like Austria, but after the summer break, he was generally nowhere after Hamilton stepped up his game apart from the last two races where you could argue that Hamilton was taking it easy.
Noone would normally demand this after only one year in a team, but when you're in the top team, you're expected to perform at the top level, regardless of experience, and thats what I'm expecting of him this year. If he dosent, there'll be plenty of other top class drivers with contract expiration for 2019, so the pressure is on.

 

[MrCharme]

The first part of the season was great and consistent, so that would've been a 9, but then he drove simply awful. Gave him a 3 for the second part so a 6 in total.

 

[Terry Rock]

A solid 7 for Bottas' effort.
The fact that he was able to move to Mercedes, adapt quickly...and win a few races, speaks for itself.
People always want to say it's down to Mercedes' power...I beg to differ.
Driving even the slowest F1 car today, takes real strategic planning and an exceptional ability to concentrate.
Ask the guys who've been in F1 for years and never stood on even the bottom step.
Bottas will only get better as time goes on.
I think he did a good job.

 

[wombat999]

As long as he's paired with Louise he'll get the short straw.
That said, he did very well as a last minute call up in an unfamiliar environment tailored for Hamilton.
Can only get better if he is allowed to do so.'

 

[pcraenme]

The ideal teammate for Lewis! When Lewis still needed the points for the WC he was almost always faster than Bottas (sometimes by quite a margin) and in case Bottas was faster, he suddenly lost speed, Lewis passed him, and then he found most of his pace again. So, how do we rate a driver who is clearly a 2nd driver in a team? His ability to execute team orders? His ability to score pole positions and win races when Lewis is not at his best? I think he is a good driver (and nice person), but not on the same level as Lewis, Sebastian, Daniel and Max.
So my score... a 7.

 

[R4M0N]

He is the first Mercedes F1 Driver since the Hybrid Chance who has not won more than 6 races and not finished to be better than 2nd on the driver world championship. Seriosly! It is his first year in pressure but he is driving since 2013 in F1 and also have cost Mercedes very much to move him from Williams. I feel very bad for that, cause an Ocon or a Wehrlein maybe got the same results in the same postioin as Valtteri Bottas
I gave him in my conclusion a rate of 5 and i am not the only one

 

[Andrew Harper]

I think Bottas did a pretty solid job this year.

I voted him an 8 as he jumped into a team and had to learn everything pretty quickly.

He set himself the task of winning some races and supporting the team with the best results he could and from that point of view he did what was asked of him.

He drove some great races and also some not so great but one thing people forget is the aero issues the Mercedes has in traffic, I think Lewis could cope with that better than Bottas, maybe just due to experience as the previous cars had similar characteristics as well.

Once that car gets stuck in traffic it seems to lose all it's front aero a lot more than some of the others.

So from that point of view he needs to work on his qualifying pace as in some sessions Lewis completely destroyed him.

He certainly deserved his seat this year and hope he manages to up his game a bit more in '18 and challenges Lewis more often.

 

[GP20]

The ideal teammate for Lewis! When Lewis still needed the points for the WC he was almost always faster than Bottas (sometimes by quite a margin) and in case Bottas was faster, he suddenly lost speed, Lewis passed him, and then he found most of his pace again. So, how do we rate a driver who is clearly a 2nd driver in a team? His ability to execute team orders?

Haha, i agree, like (the first part)