Hakkinen sends Bottas to McLaren and shows confidence in Räikkönen

Mika Hakkinen believes that Valtteri Bottas has been delivering impressive performances in recent races with Williams. The double world champion is one of the management members overseeing Valtteri Bottas’s career and helped the young Finn to debut in F1 last season.

If in 2013 he experienced a difficult first season due to a Williams-Renault running out of steam, this year is the crowning achievement. With a Mercedes engine and a rejuvenated Williams, Bottas recorded three consecutive podiums at the Austrian, British, and German Grand Prix.

« For the moment, there are two revelations this season, they are Bottas and Ricciardo », says Hakkinen.

When Hakkinen retired, he informed the McLaren management that if they wanted to keep winning, they should take another Finn. As a reminder, Kimi Räikkönen was the rising star of F1 in 2002 when he signed with McLaren.

While McLaren has not yet defined its driver duo for the 2015 season, Hakkinen advises McLaren, which is looking for the best possible drivers for Honda, to bet on Bottas.

« It’s completely natural. The first thing is that Valtteri is still a young driver who recently arrived in Formula 1. But Valtteri is interesting not only because of his speed. He can also motivate other team members, he is capable of creating an atmosphere that is necessary for success. There is an interest, and that’s good, the future will tell us what will happen. »

Another former F1 personality seems to agree with Mika Hakkinen about Bottas, it is David Coulthard, his former teammate within the Woking team: « He [Bottas] has secured three podiums and is more competitive than Felipe Massa. Valtteri seems a bit like Mika: totally impassive, which helps in the Formula 1 atmosphere. Mika doesn’t work with a lot of people, so that means something in itself [his support for Bottas]. He [Bottas] is clearly a driver for the future, but you don’t know if he can handle the pressure of a championship until he is actually in contention for it. »

As a reminder, many drivers are the subject of rumors about a possible move to McLaren in 2015: Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, or Romain Grosjean.

Besides Bottas, Mika Hakkinen also spoke about another one of his compatriots currently in Formula 1, Kimi Räikkönen, who moved this year from Lotus to Scuderia Ferrari, and for the moment, the performances are not there, especially when compared to his illustrious teammate Fernando Alonso.

Since his return to Ferrari, Räikkönen has been regularly outpaced by his teammate Fernando Alonso, who is currently 4th in the drivers’ world championship standings with 115 points, while Räikkönen is in 12th place with only 27 points. The former 2007 world champion’s best performance is his 6th place finish at the Hungarian event held at the Hungaroring.

However, Mika Hakkinen believes he sees enough progress from Iceman, who is struggling to adapt to the F14 T. He is optimistic about the future, thinking that he will achieve performances similar to those of Alonso.

« It’s just a matter of time. Kimi is just as fast as Alonso when he manages to perfectly set up his car, » said Häkkinen to GPUpdate.net.

While Ferrari had a good weekend in Hungary with a 2nd place for Fernando Alonso and a 6th place for Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari can do better. According to Hakkinen, the Reds’ strategy in qualifying was costly for the Finn: « It was an obvious mistake, one that should not be made by a team of Ferrari’s caliber. Perhaps their minds were already on their holidays. I find it hard to believe that such a mistake was made under Pat Fry’s leadership. I know Fry very well: he was an engineer at McLaren when I was there. An alarm should have been raised by someone like him. You should never take anything for granted. »