Winter 2017: Mercedes announce that Valterri Bottas will replace Nico Rosberg as the second Mercedes driver after Nico's unexpected retirement. Most people would be forgiven for expecting Bottas to yield all season to Lewis Hamilton and play second fiddle in an undisputed no. 2 role at Mercedes. To an extent this seemed like the case with the lacklustre Australian GP performance and a seemingly less favourable strategy/allowing Lewis past in Bahrain. Even in china there were some errors that you wouldn't have expected from a top team driver.
Then came Sochi for the Russian GP, Bottas earned pole and led from the start, managing to hold Vettel off in the closing stages of the race to earn his first ever P1 finish. It was at that time that Bottas proved to the world that he - by ability standards - was no secondary driver, he just took a few races to find his feet.
Fast forward to Baku and his temperament and grittiness came to the fore to claim P2 after having to pit early and rejoin the race a lap down after the first safety car. From there onwards he gradually moved up the field, aided by the safety car and red flag incidents and pipped Lance Stroll to P2 to deny the teenager in his first career podium. Bottas also beat Hamilton to pole the day before.
Today's race in Austria further compounded his credentials as a genuine title contender after driving a faultless race to claim his second career win. Only on the last lap did he have any sort of pressure on him to defend his position.
There can be no doubt that Bottas has the ability to win a championship. The question is what will happen in future when Valterri and Lewis are in a situation whereby for the benefit of the team, one driver should yield to help the other. In China this was a non issue because Lewis was much quicker on newer tyres and it was right at the beginning of the season. However as Valterri closes the points gap to his team mate, there may be a reluctance to forego points to help his team mates championship bid. Will they be allowed to race like Hamilton and Rosberg were or will team orders come into play? Would Bottas or Hamilton even obey team orders if there were crucial points at stake? That remains to be seen. I think that one would envisage Bottas as more of a team player and would be more likely to follow team orders than Lewis would.
Valterri doesn't have much to lose by not following team orders. In any interviews with Toto Wolff, the Mercedes Team Principle, he is generally non commital when discussing the future of Bottas beyond 2017. Either he wins the Drivers Championship and it makes it impossible to get rid of him; or he follows team orders and is replaced at the end of the season anyway. He might as well try and win if he's going at the end of the season anyway.
The next race will be telling. Silverstone is a track that Hamilton has had great success, he's won the last 3 races plus a P4 in 2008. Bottas had had mixed fortunes with two 17th placed finishes in 2014 and 2016, in 2015 he finished 4th in an inferior Williams car. He is no stranger to silverstone and it will be exciting to discover whether or not he is able to edge Lewis for Pole at the Britons home circuit. If he does and subsequently leads end to end like he did his last two race wins it will put him almost level on points with Lewis depending where he finishes and deliver a massive psychological blow in the process.
On the balance of momentum Bottas has Hamiltons number at the moment.