Williams: Bottas, a driver born for F1 like Senna, Fittipaldi, or Vettel?

In 2013, Valtteri Bottas will be one of the five rookie drivers on the starting grids of the Formula 1 World Championship. Despite having an unconventional career path, as he did not compete in any races in the GP2 Series or World Series by Renault, the two main breeding grounds for drivers in recent years, the Finn took advantage of the opportunity to climb the ranks leading to Formula 1 within the Williams cocoon.

Recruited by the Grove team in 2010 as a test driver, the native of Nastola has won the favor of Frank Williams, who has high hopes for him: “He controls the car brilliantly, he is a modest, very calm boy: I like that. We have the highest hopes for him in the future,” confides the Briton to the press agency Reuters. “Every team director dreams of finding a young driver who seems to have been sent to earth to drive racing cars. Ayrton Senna was one of those drivers, Emerson Fittipaldi was also like that, and Sebastian Vettel is probably of the same caliber. We really hope that Valtteri is one of those specimens. We will see.”

Indeed, since his debut in Formula Renault 2.0 in 2007, the Finn has consistently been at the forefront in all the championships he has participated in. Third in the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship in 2007, he dominated his rivals the following year – with 12 victories and 13 pole positions in 14 races – and even achieved a double triumph by winning the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup over the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne. In 2009, Valtteri Bottas stepped onto the podium of the Formula 3 Euro Series championship in his first season – behind Jules Bianchi but ahead of Esteban Gutiérrez – and won the 2009 Masters. The following year, the Finn repeated his performance before joining the GP3 Series in 2011 – where he claimed victory – allowing him to follow the European circuits with the Williams team, with whom he had become a test driver.

However, while the talent and speed of the 23-year-old driver are beyond doubt, since his victory in the 2011 GP3 Series championship, Valtteri Bottas has not competed in a race, fully dedicating himself to his role as the third driver for the Williams team, with which he participated in 15 Friday morning free practice sessions in 2012. The native of Nastola will therefore have to prove that he is capable of holding his place in a Formula 1 field, having skipped the traditional steps to reach Formula 1, such as the GP2 Series or the World Series by Renault.