Valtteri Bottas

**Valtteri Viktor Bottas** is a Finnish racing driver who is competing in Formula 1.5 with Alfa Romeo. He formerly drove for the Williams team, having drove for them in 2013, 2015 and 2016.. Bottas has scored 12 race wins and 22 podiums. He contributed to the constructors championship win for Williams in 2015, and has been drivers' champions once, also in 2015. In 2016 he finished runners up to Sergio Pérez.

## Early life

Valtteri was born in Nastola, Finland, on 28 August 1989 to Rauno Bottas and Marianne Välimaa. His father owns a small cleaning company, and his mother is an undertaker. He was educated in Heinola. Bottas served in the army briefly, which is mandatory for adult males in Finland. His military rank is lance corporal.

## Personal Life

Bottas co-owns coffee roastery “Kahiwa Coffee Roasters” in Lahti, Finland.

In 2017, Bottas launched the Valtteri Bottas Duathlon, an annual sporting event held in Finland. Bottas uses the Valtteri Bottas Duathlon to raise money for charity and various good causes.

## F1.5 Career

### Williams (2013, 2015-2016)

#### 2013: Rookie Season

Bottas was confirmed as teammate to Pastor Maldonado at Williams-Renault for the 2013 season on 28 November 2012. On 8 June 2013, Bottas qualified on pole for the first time in his career at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Bottas scored his first points for the team in hist first race finishing 7th, he would go on to score in all of his first 9 races of the season, including a fourth place finish at the second round. Valtteri also took his first podium of his career at The United States Grand Prix, finishing third.

Bottas finished the season 10th in the drivers championship with 106 points, being outscored by his teammate Pastor Maldonado by 4 points.

In 2014, Bottas drove in F1.0, before returning to F1.5 in 2015.

#### 2015: World Champion

At the opening race of the season in Australia, Bottas qualified second for the race, but injured his back during qualifying. He was taken to The Alfred Hospital for precautionary checks, where he was diagnosed with soft tissue damage to his lower back, and was not medically cleared to race.

Bottas returned for the second race of the season, starting in fith place but dropped down to 10th by the end of the first lap. Bottas made an early stop in the race due to an early safety car which saw him make progress up the positions to the race lead by lap 16. Bottas made a second stop later on in the race but overtook teammate Felipe Massa for the race lead on the penultimate lap to give him his first win of his F1.5 career. This win moved Bottas in to 2nd place in the drivers championship, 2 points ahead of Daniel Ricciardo but 18 behind the leader of Felipe Massa.

Bottas finished second to teammate Felipe Massa at the third round of the season, however things changed at round 4 in Bahrain. Bottas started from pole position with teammate and title rival Massa alongside in second place. Bottas converted his pole position into victory whilst Massa fell down to 6th. Bottas was now just 8 points behind his teammate in the championship. Bottas took pole again at the next round in Spain and Massa started 5th. In the opening stint of the race Massa made his way upto second place behind Bottas, which is where they both finished the race. Bottas was now just 1 point behind Massa.

At Monaco, Bottas only managed a lowly 10th in the race, however his teammate failed to score. This meant that Bottas and Massa were equal on points at the end of the race but Bottas lead the championship for the first time in his career due to countback on more wins to Massa (3-1). Bottas bounced back quickly at the next race taking a pole position and converting it to victory. Massa started from the back after engine issues in qualifying but worked his way up to second in the race. Bottas now lead the championship by 7 points.

At the next race at Austria, Massa took pole with Bottas managing third. In the race, Bottas dropped back to fourth off of the line but an early safety car saw him on the back of Max Verstappen and quickly re-overtook him for third. Just 10 laps later, Bottas passed Nico Hulkenberg for second place but Hülkenberg regained the advantage with an undercut pit stop, so it would all have to be repeated again later. Sure enough, Bottas got past for good on lap 35, but by then Massa was simply too far ahead for the Finn to challenge for victory. This meant Massa and Bottas were level on points again at the top of the championship.

Next was the British Grand Prix, Bottas started 2nd behind Massa. The pair made a large gap behind but the team asked Bottas not to attack or overtake Massa for the sake of the one-two finish. Bottas was understandably unhappy, and asked the team to rethink on the basis that he could go faster. Massa was given the undercut to stay ahead. Massa won the race ahead of Bottas, giving the championship lead back to Massa by 7 points. It was on to Hungary where Bottas qualified second and Massa fourth. On the start Bottas collided with Ricciardo, leaving Bottas in the lead whilst Ricciardo dropped down the order. Bottas got sutck in traffic though after an earlier stop, and then a safety car was deployed which allowed Ricciardo to re-jump Bottas for the lead. On the restart, Bottas was passed by Kvyat to drop him to third and then was hit by Verstappen giving Bottas a puncture, sending him to the back of the field. Bottas would recover to 10th whilst Massa 9th.

Bottas tried to rebound again at the next race, by taking pole position however he fell to third off the start behind both Perez and Ricciardo. Bottas' day went from bad to worse at his first stop, as he was released with three medium tyres and one soft, earning a drive-through penalty which pushed him down to 7th. In the end, Bottas finished sixth, whilst his teammate finish fourth to further extend the championship lead to 12 points. In Italy, the two drivers were in another world compared to the rest of the grid. Bottas had DRS on Massa all through the closing stages of the race, with no team orders in play and a championship on the line. Massa was able to hang on for victory, with Bottas just three tenths behind at the line. Bottas now 19 points behind Massa.

At Singapore, Bottas started second compared to teammate Massa in fith. Massa was crashed out of the race by Hulkenberg whilst Bottas finished the race second, meaning Bottas was now just 1 point behind the Brazilian. In the next weekend at Japan, Bottas snatched pole from Massa in qualifying. A frantic start to the race saw Massa and Ricciardo collide causing both punctures, and dropping to the back of the field. Bottas took a comfy victory whilst Massa didn't score for the second race in a row. This moved Bottas into the lead of the championship by 24 points.

In Russia, Bottas took pole again and lead off of the line however a late a crash with an F1.0 car saw him dropped down the order to only score 2 points, whilst Massa finished second. Just 8 points kept Bottas ahead of Massa in the championship. A tricky qualifying in the USA saw Bottas only 8th which became 12th after a gearbox penalty whilst Massa qualified 5th. Bottas retired from the race with a broken suspension, Massa also failed to finish the race meaning all stayed the same in the championship.

With 3 rounds remaining Bottas and Massa lined up on the second row for the Mexican Grand Prix. Williams decided to go aggressive on strategy, making Bottas the first of any drivers to pit and Massa one lap later. The undercut was a success, as Bottas and Massa rose to 2nd and 3rd once everyone had stopped. After a safety car Bottas wasted no time on the restart, as he overtook Kvyat at turn 1 and held the lead to the finish. Massa finished fourth. Bottas now lead the championship by 21 points.

Heading to the penultimate round of the season, Massa would need to finish ahead of Bottas to keep the title alive, while Bottas could win it in front of his rival's fans if he outscored Massa by 4 points. Bottas took pole but due to a grid penalty he was dropped to start in third behind Hulkenberg and Kvyat. Massa started alongside Bottas in fourth. At the start, Bottas was eager to make up for his penalty and did so in bold fashion, seizing the lead on the first lap as Hülkenberg slipped to third. Massa would need to deny Bottas victory to have any chance at the title, but he was stuck in P4 and needed a stroke of luck to do anything more. Bottas won the race, whilst Massa couldn't finish any higher than fourth. As though to compound Massa's misery, however, he was disqualified after the race due to his tyres being too hot at the start. Bottas was officaly the 2015 Formula 1.5 Drivers Champion. In the final round of the season, Bottas finished 9th scoring just 2 points.

Bottas finished the season in first place with 279 points compared to Massa's 243. Williams also took the constructors championship.

#### 2016: Runners up

Bottas and Massa remained teammates at Williams for the 2016 season. Bottas started the season with consistancy finishing fourth at the opening 3 races, before taking back to back wins at Russia and Spain. Bottas lead the championship for much of the season taking 5 wins, 2 second places and 2 thrid places over the season. However 2 non score's in the final 5 races meant that Perez pipped him to the championship. Bottas scored 279 points to Perez' 308. He achieved an unofficial Formula One record speed of 378 km/h (235 mph) at the Baku City Circuit during qualifying for the European Grand Prix. He also out-qualified his teammate 17–4 throughout the season. Bottas moved to Mercedes in F1.0 after 2016.

### Alfa Romeo (2022)

#### 2022: A return to F1.5

Bottas is under contract to race with Alfa Romeo from 2022 on a multi-year deal. He is partnered by rookie Zhou Guanyu. Bottas took pole on his return to the sport in Bahrain, however he failed to beat Kevin Magnussen finishing second. It wasn't long before he would make a return to the podium in Imola, before taking two wins in a row at the Miami and Spanish Grand Prix's both from Pole Position. After the Spanish Grand Prix Bottas was leading the drivers championship in a close battle with Norris and Ocon. In Monaco, Bottas made it four podiums in a row to finish third, which was enough to keep him leading the championship by 1 single point over Norris. The next round was Azerbaijan, and it didn't go to plan finishing a lowly 7th, however his rivals didn't score big. He dropped to second in the standings, 3 points behind Norris. At Canada, in the next race, Bottas finished 2nd behind Ocon to retake the championship lead. Zhou also joined him on the podium in third place. This was Alfa Romeo's first double podium since their return to the sport in 2017. The next four races saw Bottas retire, followed by a 7th and 9th finish and another retirment, These results saw Bottas drop from the lead to fourth in the standings over 30 points off the lead.

After the summer break Bottas failed to finish the first 2 races in Belgium and The Netherlands. This was followed by 3 point scoring positions in the following 3 race's, however Alfa Romeo's lack of development late in the season meant he finished no higher than 6th in those races. With four rounds remaining of the season Bottas was out of the title fight haven fallen off drastically since the Canadian GP.

At the Mexican Grand Prix, Bottas took pole position however fell back to fourth in the race, this was Bottas' best result in 11 races, since he finished 2nd in Canada. In Brazil he finished third to take his final podium of the year after being knocked out in Q1 in qualifying.

Bottas finished his season 4th in the standings withn 202 points.

#### 2023 Season

Bottas finished the season opener in Bahrain with a win.