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Formula 1: How Valtteri Bottas benefits from Mercedes’ team orders

By Asher Fair

SOCHI, RUSSIA - SEPTEMBER 30: Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP and second placed Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP celebrate on the podium during the Formula One Grand Prix of Russia at Sochi Autodrom on September 30, 2018 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
SOCHI, RUSSIA - SEPTEMBER 30: Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP and second placed Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP celebrate on the podium during the Formula One Grand Prix of Russia at Sochi Autodrom on September 30, 2018 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /
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The main beneficiary of Mercedes’ use of team orders in the Russian Grand Prix was Valtteri Bottas, not four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton. Here’s why.

Every Formula 1 fan who is not a Lewis Hamilton fan was left shaking his or her ahead in anger after lap 25 of the 53-lap Russian Grand Prix around the 18-turn, 3.634-mile (5.848-kilometer) Sochi Autodrom road course in Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.

On this lap, race polesitter Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport was running in second place behind Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, who had not yet made his pit stop. Bottas’s teammate Lewis Hamilton was running in third.

Over the radio, Mercedes ordered Bottas, who was in position to win the race, to give up his position to Hamilton since Hamilton reportedly had a blistered tire and was at risk of losing third place (effectively second) to championship rival Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari.

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When the race neared its end and it became evident that Hamilton and Bottas would have no problem finishing in the top two, Bottas asked Mercedes on the radio when the two drivers would swap positions back.

He was told that they wouldn’t.

On the surface, it seems like Mercedes deceived Bottas and took away his win just to help Hamilton extend his lead over Vettel in the driver standings from 40 points to 50 points as opposed to from 40 points to 43 points with five races remaining in the 21-race season.

That is, in fact, what happened, as Hamilton has a 306 to 256 lead over Vettel in the driver standings.

However, in the long run, in may be Bottas who derives more of an advantage from this occurrence than Hamilton does as opposed to the other way around.

Let’s face it. Unless Hamilton has a disastrous finish to the season like he has never had in his career, he will be a five-time Formula 1 champion before Vettel is. The 33-year-old Briton has pretty much clinched the championship in every possible way, except, of course, mathematically.

The odds that Mercedes gave Hamilton his eighth victory of the season and took away what would have been Bottas’s first victory of the season because they believe Vettel can overcome a 43-point deficit but not a 50-point deficit are minimal. Unless they truly have a weakness moving forward that only they know about, this was done solely to try to allow Hamilton to secure the 2018 championship as quickly as possible.

With a 50-point lead with five races remaining, Hamilton can potentially secure the title as early as the season’s 18th race, the United States Grand Prix. He will need to outscore Vettel by at least 25 points over the course of the next race, which is the Japanese Grand Prix, and the United States Grand Prix to do so.

This will leave three races for Bottas to potentially win, one of which is the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which he dominated last year. Plus, with how grateful Hamilton was for Bottas allowing him to win the Russian Grand Prix and with how reluctant he was to consider himself the true winner of the race, it would not be surprising to see him repay the favor to the 29-year-old Finn by giving him a win that would otherwise end up belonging to himself.

Of course, this obviously wouldn’t be the most optimal way for Bottas to earn a victory, and he admits that. However, it would essentially be a way for him to officially earn the victory that he unofficially earned in the Russian Grand Prix.

Make no mistake about it: Bottas is in a great position moving forward both in terms of his standing with Mercedes and in terms of his own personal racing record.

Next. Top 10 Formula 1 drivers of all-time. dark

Will Valtteri Bottas earn at least one victory before the 2018 Formula 1 season comes to an end? If so, will at least one of his victories be earned because Lewis Hamilton relinquishes the lead to him?

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