Formula 1: Will Valtteri Bottas bounce back in the 2019 season?

By Asher Fair | Dec 31, 2018

SUZUKA, JAPAN - OCTOBER 06: Valtteri Bottas driving the (77) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes WO9 (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) /

Will Valtteri Bottas bounce back in the 2019 Formula 1 season after going winless in his second season driving for Mercedes in 2018?

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas entered the 2018 Formula 1 season following a 2017 season during which he earned the first three victories of his Formula 1 career.

Bottas replaced 2016 champion Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, which were the three-time reigning constructor champions heading into the 2017 season, for the 2017 season after driving for Williams Martini Racing from the 2013 season through the 2016 season.

The 29-year-old Finn was hired as the teammate to Lewis Hamilton at the Brackley-based team after putting up impressive statistics during his four-year stint at Williams.

Bottas finished in fourth place in the driver standings in the 2014 season and fifth in the standings in the 2015 season, and he earned nine podium finishes and 25 top five finishes over the course of his four seasons driving for the Grove-based team (specifically, over the course of his final three seasons driving for the team).

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In the 20-race 2017 season, Bottas earned three victories, 13 podium finishes and 18 top five finishes en route to a third place finish in the driver standings. He finished the season with 305 points, a point total that trailed the point total of the champion, Hamilton, by 58 points (363 points) and the point total of second place Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari by 12 points (347 points).

But in the 21-race 2018 season, Bottas failed to earn any victories. He recorded only eight podium finishes and 17 top five finishes en route to a fifth place finish in the driver standings. He finished the season with 247 points, a point total that trailed the point total of the champion, Hamilton, by 161 points (408 points).

Will Bottas bounce back in the 2019 season?

Bottas will likely come back stronger in the 2019 season, especially given the fact that it wasn’t entirely his fault that he failed to win any of the 2018 season’s 21 races, but whether or not he will do enough to cause Mercedes to bring him back for the 2020 season is another story, as there are already rumors that Mercedes reserve and test driver Esteban Ocon will replace him after or possibly even during the 2019 season.

Bottas lost a potential victory with under three laps remaining in the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a result of the fact that he ran over a piece of debris, which shredded his right rear tire, forcing him to retire from the race and allowing Hamilton to win it.

Team orders prevented Bottas from fighting Hamilton, who was on old tires, for the victory late in the German Grand Prix while he was on new tires. Team orders forced him to allow Hamilton to pass him just before the halfway point of the Russian Grand Prix as well before Hamilton went on to win the race.

While Bottas only finished the 2018 season in fifth place in the driver standings with 247 points, he did not have as bad of a season as those statistics would suggest. Had he not been forced to retired from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and gone on to win it, he would have scored 25 additional points while Hamilton would have scored 18 points as opposed to 25.

Had Bottas won the German Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix as opposed to finishing in second place in both of them, he would have scored 25 points in both of them as opposed to 18. Hamilton, who won both of them, would have scored 18 points in both of them as opposed to 25.

Had he not been faced any of this misfortune throughout the 2018 season, Bottas would have finished in third place in the driver standings with 286 points, and he would have finished just 101 points behind Hamilton (387 to 286), which is still a large amount, albeit not nearly 161 points, and it would have come after he doubled his career win total.

Assuming that he is not faced with the amount of misfortune that he was faced with in the 2018 season, it is hard to imagine Bottas not winning at least a few races in the 2019 season, especially since Mercedes have not committed to bringing him back to the team in the 2020 season. He has a lot to drive for next year, so expect him to be on top of his game.

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Will Valtteri Bottas bounce back in the 2019 Formula 1 season? Will he earn any victories throughout the 21-race season, and if so, how many will he earn? The season is scheduled to begin with the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, March 17. This race is set to take place at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia.

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