By Ben Anderson | |
Grand Prix Editor |
When Valtteri Bottas pulled into the pits to retire his Williams at the end of the sixth lap of last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he couldn't possibly have dreamed the next time he drives a Formula 1 car in anger will be for the best team on the grid, one that has dominated F1 for the past three seasons. But as Bottas climbed from his broken car and headed home for the winter, Nico Rosberg was busy navigating the most difficult race of his life, knowing if he succeeded he would likely retire from F1 as its new world champion. And that's exactly what he did. A few days later, at the FIA's prize-giving ceremony in Vienna, Rosberg announced to a stunned audience he would not defend his maiden world title in 2017, bringing an abrupt end to his F1 career, and setting off a chain of events that would eventually lead Bottas to leave his Williams "family" to take up the hottest seat in Formula 1's house. They surely don't come any hotter than in the reigning world champion's car, belonging to the reigning world champion constructor, as team-mate to Lewis Hamilton - one of the greatest drivers ever seen in F1... Bottas would have expected to spend a fifth season racing for Williams in 2017, helping the team that has nurtured his entire F1 career to date traverse the minefield of sweeping regulation changes. But that's the thing about Formula 1 - you never know what might be around the next corner. WHAT ELSE COULD MERCEDES DO? Rosberg's sudden retirement shocked everyone - including his employer, which was banking on Rosberg seeing out the new contract he signed ahead of last July's Hungarian Grand Prix to keep him at Mercedes until the end of 2018. The timing also left Mercedes with little room for manoeuvre in terms of finding a capable replacement. Toto Wolff said every driver on the 2016 grid bar two - Kimi Raikkonen and Daniil Kvyat - phoned him in the aftermath of Rosberg's bombshell. He reckoned the only reason it wasn't a full set was because neither Raikkonen nor Kvyat possessed his phone number! But nearly all of them already held contracts with rival teams. Of the like-for-like world champions, Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen both have a year to go on their respective deals with Ferrari; ditto McLaren's Fernando Alonso, while Alonso's now semi-retired team-mate Jenson Button is tied down to an ambassadorial and reserve driver role for 2017 - with an option on the team's side to return him to race action the following year. Max Verstappen saw the funny side of things on social media, tweeting a screenshot of an incoming call from Wolff on a smartphone, asking his followers whether he should answer. Verstappen would arguably be Wolff's preferred choice, given Mercedes engaged in a tug of war for his services in 2014. But Red Bull won that war, and has both Verstappen and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo - F1's outstanding driver in 2016 - under lock and key until at least the end of 2018. F1 fans would probably most want to see Hamilton paired alongside Vettel, or renew his 2007 rivalry with Alonso, but Wolff made it clear pretty quickly that Mercedes wasn't interested in 'disturbing' its main rivals (likely code for 'we know the buyout price will be way too high'), while Alonso told McLaren's staff he wasn't interested in abandoning the McLaren-Honda project after two seasons of toil. Even F1's top midfield drivers (including Bottas) were all tied down. The only clean option for Mercedes was to promote junior driver Pascal Wehrlein, who enjoyed a fine rookie campaign at customer squad Manor in 2016, but got overlooked by Force India when it came to replacing Renault-bound Nico Hulkenberg. Hulkenberg would arguably have been the perfect fit for Mercedes in these circumstances. An experienced driver, German, and considered among the best on the grid yet to earn a shot with a top team. Had Hulkenberg decided to reject Renault and see out the final year of his Force India contract, a move to Mercedes would have been relatively straightforward, given Force India always said it would not stand in his way should a top outfit come calling. Mercedes clearly felt its junior drivers were too raw to thrust into the pressure-cooker of a world championship title defence. Top teams are naturally risk-averse, so perhaps it's no surprise that Wehrlein (and Force India-contracted Esteban Ocon) have been overlooked in favour of more experienced hands. Bottas is part of that group of drivers - including Hulkenberg, Force India's Sergio Perez, and Haas's Romain Grosjean - that exist outside of F1's top bracket but have the requisite experience and track record to move on up if required. Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Jr (following an outstanding 2016 season) and his team-mate Daniil Kvyat (demoted, some feel harshly, by Red Bull last year) could also fit the bill, but not without a tricky process of contract re-negotiation. The more you narrow down the realistic options for Mercedes, the more Bottas looks like the best fit given the circumstances. He is already part of the Mercedes family, through its customer engine deal with Williams, as well as being managed in part by Wolff. All this must have played a part in Mercedes' thinking. MORE THAN JUST A SAFE PAIR OF HANDS The Finn looks like someone to slot in at short notice who will do a good job without rocking Hamilton's boat, trying too hard to make an impression, or occasionally going missing through inexperience. He also possesses an even temperament, which should help Mercedes avoid the sort of internal conflicts that became a regular feature of the recent Hamilton/Rosberg rivalry. But Bottas is much, much more than just a safe pair of hands. Over the past four seasons he quietly became Williams's best driver - the reference point around which it focused its competitive effort, a driver its ex-technical chief Pat Symonds reckoned was "crucial" to the team's hopes of future success, and someone his former Williams race engineer Jonathan Eddolls describes to Autosport as "bulletproof", and reckons is a better driver than Rosberg. "I worked with Rosberg. I've worked with them [both] in different eras. Definitely I think he [Bottas] is better," says Eddolls, who has worked with Bottas since he first drove in free practice sessions for Williams in F1, in 2012. "Even back in '12 we could tell that he had a natural talent. And what was good was after every Friday we'd go through all the data, tyre temperatures, what he was doing, the slip [of the tyres], how he was driving, the pros and cons of what he was doing, and he'd understand. "He's clever, which helps! Then the next week he'd come back and have another go. Over those Fridays you could really see the improvement from one Friday to the next. "It's continued and continued. That's one of his big strengths over most - he's probably one of the best drivers at looking after tyres. "One thing he's excellent at giving is feedback during the race - how many laps are left for the tyre. We've got the data and can monitor it and predict ourselves, but there's nothing like the driver saying that there are five or eight laps left, which gives you confidence in your numbers. "He's never very far out - a lap or two, which is pretty exceptional. I don't know how he does it, but he's got a hell of a feel for the tyres." This sort of remarkable intuitive feel is a hallmark of all potentially great drivers. It's something engineers revere in Bottas's fellow Finn Raikkonen; it's something that is clear to see in the outstanding performances of triple champion Hamilton, the stunning qualifying laps of Ricciardo, and the mesmerising races of rising superstar Verstappen. Bottas's performances are often less heralded, because of where Williams has been in the competitive pecking order recently, but he has a knack for getting up to speed very quickly on grand prix weekends. His qualifying record against Massa last season was also better than any other driver on the grid versus a full-time team-mate. Bottas is able to marry his natural speed and feel with a furious work ethic - another hallmark of the best drivers in the modern age of F1. "In qualifying, as long as you get him a good track position, you can sit back, watch him start and you're confident he'll always find the limit of the car," Eddolls (pictured above, right, with Bottas) adds. "He's very honest, and doesn't ever try to hide anything. He's not somebody who will blame the team. He'll look inwards and blame himself. And he'll learn from that - try to make sure those little things don't happen again. He's very self-critical. "If he does say anything about the car then you know there is something wrong - he'll never go out and make something up. If he's slow he'll come back and say, 'To be honest the car feels alright to me, that wasn't a great lap', so you won't have to spend three hours hunting for something that isn't there. It makes working with him much easier. You trust each other. "He very, very rarely makes mistakes. He [nearly] always gets to the end of the race and brings it home. He's rarely involved in accidents. It would be interesting to see him in a Mercedes, just to see how quick he really is. On his day he's awesome, he really is." SOME ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT Bottas is by no means the finished article yet, and there is no doubt he will need to raise his game to cope with the added pressure of racing for F1's current top team, and taking on a driver of Hamilton's legendary ability in identical equipment. So far Bottas has shown himself to be a very well rounded driver - he is fast, consistent, has excellent feel, and is intelligent, self-critical and mentally resilient. But there is one area of his game that perhaps needs some refinement. Williams has often highlighted the way Bottas can get out-muscled at the start of races. Excluding the three that began in wet conditions behind a safety car in 2016 (Monaco, Silverstone and Brazil) and May's Spanish GP (where the two Mercedes drivers took each other out on lap one), Bottas gained places on the first lap of only six of the remaining 17 races last season - his most impressive start coming in Bahrain, where he was lucky to escape a collision at Turn 1 with new team-mate Hamilton. He doesn't seem to be naturally aggressive in battle, an impression his predecessor Rosberg had to work hard to overcome after being seen as a 'soft touch' by rivals during the early part of his career. "In terms of the start and that procedure he's very good," argues Eddolls. "It's difficult to say if he's conservative in the first corner. Maybe you could say he's not as aggressive as some of the others, but rarely do we look at video and say, 'Shit we lost a place because of that'. "Maybe sometimes you think we could've gained a position if we were a little bit more aggressive, but it's bringing the thing home and consistently scoring the points [that counts for more]. "I'm not saying he's weak, but if I had to improve one thing it would be that relative to some of his other areas." Bottas himself agrees this is something he needs to work on. "It's definitely one of the things I can still improve," he tells Autosport. "But I've got a lot better. Sometimes I've taken too little risks. It's always about balancing the risk and how many points you think you can gain with that. "I can't really point and say there's one big weakness, but there are things you can always improve. I just know that, by doing the style I do, by learning from mistakes and analysing every situation, like if I've lost a position or something in the race, try and learn from it and do better next time, that'll help me improve. I feel like I'm better for it." REALISATION OF A DREAM By the end of the summer of 2015 it looked as though Bottas had missed his big F1 break. Ferrari wanted him to replace the under-performing Kimi Raikkonen as Sebastian Vettel's team-mate, but refused to match Williams's valuation to buy Bottas out of his contract, so he stayed put. Bottas could so easily have let his head drop in the aftermath of this outcome, and experienced a dip in form concurrent with Williams's competitive reversal of 2016, which culminated in defeat to Force India in a tight battle for fourth place in the constructors' championship. Some paddock insiders feel the reason Hulkenberg didn't always reach the heady heights of his 2013 season with Sauber during his recent Force India stint lies somewhere in the disappointment of missing out on a Ferrari seat when the Scuderia decided to pair Raikkonen with Fernando Alonso in 2014. Williams was impressed with the way Bottas kept his chin up, refusing to let any personal dissatisfaction with the way the 2016 driver market played out, or Williams's own disappointing development of the FW38, negatively affect his driving. Last season was the most difficult of the past three for Williams in terms of achieving big results, but Bottas stuck resolutely to his task. He is not one for dwelling on opportunities missed. This sort of mental solidity should serve him well. "I don't think about it because it doesn't help," he told Autosport at the end of last season, when asked whether he held any regrets over missing the boat at Ferrari. "I focus on the current situation, and I know I've got plenty of time left. "I feel I'm getting better so I'm approaching it knowing there's more ahead, and to be honest I'm just always looking forward and waiting for the opportunities that will come. "I've much bigger plans than this in Formula 1. That's what I care about and think about. I feel comfortable in Formula 1, and it's for other people to see me as their driver. I know it's possible. I'm just chasing my dream." Joining Mercedes will be a major step towards realising that dream, of one day becoming Formula 1 world champion. WHAT CAN MERCEDES EXPECT? Mercedes should bank on Bottas being much more than a reliable number two to Hamilton. OK, the Finn has yet to win a race in 77 starts in F1, but that's not through any fault of his. The Williams cars he's driven for each of those starts have not been good enough for that in reality, yet he's still returned nine podium finishes with them. His peak performances in 2013 show he's capable of over-achieving in poor machinery - a sure sign of a potentially elite driver. He is ambitious, possessing the single-minded ruthlessness familiar to all drivers who feel they have the ability to succeed at the very top of single-seater racing, but he is also capable of seeing the bigger picture of team sport. Bottas isn't controversial, doesn't make a lot of noise, doesn't spend much time talking himself up on TV and in the press. But he looks eminently capable of winning races in the right machinery, which is the least Mercedes will expect of him. "Personally all I can do is keep doing what I'm doing, trying to get better and better, and I know if there's a car that is close to being the best car, or top three, I can definitely do it," Bottas reckons. "I have no doubts in myself. I know I'm capable of winning races. It feels like I need the correct machine for that. I have my goals and I know I still have many years to come, and still feel like I haven't yet achieved my peak of performance. "I'm ready to wait for the right opportunities for me to fulfill my dreams. I'm definitely ready for a winning team." For Bottas, that wait is finally over. |
By Ben Anderson | |
Grand Prix Editor |
When Valtteri Bottas pulled into the pits to retire his Williams at the end of the sixth lap of last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he couldn't possibly have dreamed the next time he drives a Formula 1 car in anger will be for the best team on the grid, one that has dominated F1 for the past three seasons. But as Bottas climbed from his broken car and headed home for the winter, Nico Rosberg was busy navigating the most difficult race of his life, knowing if he succeeded he would likely retire from F1 as its new world champion. And that's exactly what he did. A few days later, at the FIA's prize-giving ceremony in Vienna, Rosberg announced to a stunned audience he would not defend his maiden world title in 2017, bringing an abrupt end to his F1 career, and setting off a chain of events that would eventually lead Bottas to leave his Williams "family" to take up the hottest seat in Formula 1's house. They surely don't come any hotter than in the reigning world champion's car, belonging to the reigning world champion constructor, as team-mate to Lewis Hamilton - one of the greatest drivers ever seen in F1... Bottas would have expected to spend a fifth season racing for Williams in 2017, helping the team that has nurtured his entire F1 career to date traverse the minefield of sweeping regulation changes. But that's the thing about Formula 1 - you never know what might be around the next corner. WHAT ELSE COULD MERCEDES DO? Rosberg's sudden retirement shocked everyone - including his employer, which was banking on Rosberg seeing out the new contract he signed ahead of last July's Hungarian Grand Prix to keep him at Mercedes until the end of 2018. The timing also left Mercedes with little room for manoeuvre in terms of finding a capable replacement. Toto Wolff said every driver on the 2016 grid bar two - Kimi Raikkonen and Daniil Kvyat - phoned him in the aftermath of Rosberg's bombshell. He reckoned the only reason it wasn't a full set was because neither Raikkonen nor Kvyat possessed his phone number! But nearly all of them already held contracts with rival teams. Of the like-for-like world champions, Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen both have a year to go on their respective deals with Ferrari; ditto McLaren's Fernando Alonso, while Alonso's now semi-retired team-mate Jenson Button is tied down to an ambassadorial and reserve driver role for 2017 - with an option on the team's side to return him to race action the following year. Max Verstappen saw the funny side of things on social media, tweeting a screenshot of an incoming call from Wolff on a smartphone, asking his followers whether he should answer. Verstappen would arguably be Wolff's preferred choice, given Mercedes engaged in a tug of war for his services in 2014. But Red Bull won that war, and has both Verstappen and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo - F1's outstanding driver in 2016 - under lock and key until at least the end of 2018. F1 fans would probably most want to see Hamilton paired alongside Vettel, or renew his 2007 rivalry with Alonso, but Wolff made it clear pretty quickly that Mercedes wasn't interested in 'disturbing' its main rivals (likely code for 'we know the buyout price will be way too high'), while Alonso told McLaren's staff he wasn't interested in abandoning the McLaren-Honda project after two seasons of toil. Even F1's top midfield drivers (including Bottas) were all tied down. The only clean option for Mercedes was to promote junior driver Pascal Wehrlein, who enjoyed a fine rookie campaign at customer squad Manor in 2016, but got overlooked by Force India when it came to replacing Renault-bound Nico Hulkenberg. Hulkenberg would arguably have been the perfect fit for Mercedes in these circumstances. An experienced driver, German, and considered among the best on the grid yet to earn a shot with a top team. Had Hulkenberg decided to reject Renault and see out the final year of his Force India contract, a move to Mercedes would have been relatively straightforward, given Force India always said it would not stand in his way should a top outfit come calling. Mercedes clearly felt its junior drivers were too raw to thrust into the pressure-cooker of a world championship title defence. Top teams are naturally risk-averse, so perhaps it's no surprise that Wehrlein (and Force India-contracted Esteban Ocon) have been overlooked in favour of more experienced hands. Bottas is part of that group of drivers - including Hulkenberg, Force India's Sergio Perez, and Haas's Romain Grosjean - that exist outside of F1's top bracket but have the requisite experience and track record to move on up if required. Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Jr (following an outstanding 2016 season) and his team-mate Daniil Kvyat (demoted, some feel harshly, by Red Bull last year) could also fit the bill, but not without a tricky process of contract re-negotiation. The more you narrow down the realistic options for Mercedes, the more Bottas looks like the best fit given the circumstances. He is already part of the Mercedes family, through its customer engine deal with Williams, as well as being managed in part by Wolff. All this must have played a part in Mercedes' thinking. MORE THAN JUST A SAFE PAIR OF HANDS The Finn looks like someone to slot in at short notice who will do a good job without rocking Hamilton's boat, trying too hard to make an impression, or occasionally going missing through inexperience. He also possesses an even temperament, which should help Mercedes avoid the sort of internal conflicts that became a regular feature of the recent Hamilton/Rosberg rivalry. But Bottas is much, much more than just a safe pair of hands. Over the past four seasons he quietly became Williams's best driver - the reference point around which it focused its competitive effort, a driver its ex-technical chief Pat Symonds reckoned was "crucial" to the team's hopes of future success, and someone his former Williams race engineer Jonathan Eddolls describes to Autosport as "bulletproof", and reckons is a better driver than Rosberg. "I worked with Rosberg. I've worked with them [both] in different eras. Definitely I think he [Bottas] is better," says Eddolls, who has worked with Bottas since he first drove in free practice sessions for Williams in F1, in 2012. "Even back in '12 we could tell that he had a natural talent. And what was good was after every Friday we'd go through all the data, tyre temperatures, what he was doing, the slip [of the tyres], how he was driving, the pros and cons of what he was doing, and he'd understand. "He's clever, which helps! Then the next week he'd come back and have another go. Over those Fridays you could really see the improvement from one Friday to the next. "It's continued and continued. That's one of his big strengths over most - he's probably one of the best drivers at looking after tyres. "One thing he's excellent at giving is feedback during the race - how many laps are left for the tyre. We've got the data and can monitor it and predict ourselves, but there's nothing like the driver saying that there are five or eight laps left, which gives you confidence in your numbers. "He's never very far out - a lap or two, which is pretty exceptional. I don't know how he does it, but he's got a hell of a feel for the tyres." This sort of remarkable intuitive feel is a hallmark of all potentially great drivers. It's something engineers revere in Bottas's fellow Finn Raikkonen; it's something that is clear to see in the outstanding performances of triple champion Hamilton, the stunning qualifying laps of Ricciardo, and the mesmerising races of rising superstar Verstappen. Bottas's performances are often less heralded, because of where Williams has been in the competitive pecking order recently, but he has a knack for getting up to speed very quickly on grand prix weekends. His qualifying record against Massa last season was also better than any other driver on the grid versus a full-time team-mate. Bottas is able to marry his natural speed and feel with a furious work ethic - another hallmark of the best drivers in the modern age of F1. "In qualifying, as long as you get him a good track position, you can sit back, watch him start and you're confident he'll always find the limit of the car," Eddolls (pictured above, right, with Bottas) adds. "He's very honest, and doesn't ever try to hide anything. He's not somebody who will blame the team. He'll look inwards and blame himself. And he'll learn from that - try to make sure those little things don't happen again. He's very self-critical. "If he does say anything about the car then you know there is something wrong - he'll never go out and make something up. If he's slow he'll come back and say, 'To be honest the car feels alright to me, that wasn't a great lap', so you won't have to spend three hours hunting for something that isn't there. It makes working with him much easier. You trust each other. "He very, very rarely makes mistakes. He [nearly] always gets to the end of the race and brings it home. He's rarely involved in accidents. It would be interesting to see him in a Mercedes, just to see how quick he really is. On his day he's awesome, he really is." SOME ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT Bottas is by no means the finished article yet, and there is no doubt he will need to raise his game to cope with the added pressure of racing for F1's current top team, and taking on a driver of Hamilton's legendary ability in identical equipment. So far Bottas has shown himself to be a very well rounded driver - he is fast, consistent, has excellent feel, and is intelligent, self-critical and mentally resilient. But there is one area of his game that perhaps needs some refinement. Williams has often highlighted the way Bottas can get out-muscled at the start of races. Excluding the three that began in wet conditions behind a safety car in 2016 (Monaco, Silverstone and Brazil) and May's Spanish GP (where the two Mercedes drivers took each other out on lap one), Bottas gained places on the first lap of only six of the remaining 17 races last season - his most impressive start coming in Bahrain, where he was lucky to escape a collision at Turn 1 with new team-mate Hamilton. He doesn't seem to be naturally aggressive in battle, an impression his predecessor Rosberg had to work hard to overcome after being seen as a 'soft touch' by rivals during the early part of his career. "In terms of the start and that procedure he's very good," argues Eddolls. "It's difficult to say if he's conservative in the first corner. Maybe you could say he's not as aggressive as some of the others, but rarely do we look at video and say, 'Shit we lost a place because of that'. "Maybe sometimes you think we could've gained a position if we were a little bit more aggressive, but it's bringing the thing home and consistently scoring the points [that counts for more]. "I'm not saying he's weak, but if I had to improve one thing it would be that relative to some of his other areas." Bottas himself agrees this is something he needs to work on. "It's definitely one of the things I can still improve," he tells Autosport. "But I've got a lot better. Sometimes I've taken too little risks. It's always about balancing the risk and how many points you think you can gain with that. "I can't really point and say there's one big weakness, but there are things you can always improve. I just know that, by doing the style I do, by learning from mistakes and analysing every situation, like if I've lost a position or something in the race, try and learn from it and do better next time, that'll help me improve. I feel like I'm better for it." REALISATION OF A DREAM By the end of the summer of 2015 it looked as though Bottas had missed his big F1 break. Ferrari wanted him to replace the under-performing Kimi Raikkonen as Sebastian Vettel's team-mate, but refused to match Williams's valuation to buy Bottas out of his contract, so he stayed put. Bottas could so easily have let his head drop in the aftermath of this outcome, and experienced a dip in form concurrent with Williams's competitive reversal of 2016, which culminated in defeat to Force India in a tight battle for fourth place in the constructors' championship. Some paddock insiders feel the reason Hulkenberg didn't always reach the heady heights of his 2013 season with Sauber during his recent Force India stint lies somewhere in the disappointment of missing out on a Ferrari seat when the Scuderia decided to pair Raikkonen with Fernando Alonso in 2014. Williams was impressed with the way Bottas kept his chin up, refusing to let any personal dissatisfaction with the way the 2016 driver market played out, or Williams's own disappointing development of the FW38, negatively affect his driving. Last season was the most difficult of the past three for Williams in terms of achieving big results, but Bottas stuck resolutely to his task. He is not one for dwelling on opportunities missed. This sort of mental solidity should serve him well. "I don't think about it because it doesn't help," he told Autosport at the end of last season, when asked whether he held any regrets over missing the boat at Ferrari. "I focus on the current situation, and I know I've got plenty of time left. "I feel I'm getting better so I'm approaching it knowing there's more ahead, and to be honest I'm just always looking forward and waiting for the opportunities that will come. "I've much bigger plans than this in Formula 1. That's what I care about and think about. I feel comfortable in Formula 1, and it's for other people to see me as their driver. I know it's possible. I'm just chasing my dream." Joining Mercedes will be a major step towards realising that dream, of one day becoming Formula 1 world champion. WHAT CAN MERCEDES EXPECT? Mercedes should bank on Bottas being much more than a reliable number two to Hamilton. OK, the Finn has yet to win a race in 77 starts in F1, but that's not through any fault of his. The Williams cars he's driven for each of those starts have not been good enough for that in reality, yet he's still returned nine podium finishes with them. His peak performances in 2013 show he's capable of over-achieving in poor machinery - a sure sign of a potentially elite driver. He is ambitious, possessing the single-minded ruthlessness familiar to all drivers who feel they have the ability to succeed at the very top of single-seater racing, but he is also capable of seeing the bigger picture of team sport. Bottas isn't controversial, doesn't make a lot of noise, doesn't spend much time talking himself up on TV and in the press. But he looks eminently capable of winning races in the right machinery, which is the least Mercedes will expect of him. "Personally all I can do is keep doing what I'm doing, trying to get better and better, and I know if there's a car that is close to being the best car, or top three, I can definitely do it," Bottas reckons. "I have no doubts in myself. I know I'm capable of winning races. It feels like I need the correct machine for that. I have my goals and I know I still have many years to come, and still feel like I haven't yet achieved my peak of performance. "I'm ready to wait for the right opportunities for me to fulfill my dreams. I'm definitely ready for a winning team." For Bottas, that wait is finally over. |