Formula 1: Valtteri Bottas loses main sponsor Wihuri ahead of 2019 season

Following a disappointing 2018 Formula 1 season, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas has been cut by his main sponsor, Wihuri.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas has been cut by his main sponsor, Wihuri, following his second Formula 1 season driving for Mercedes in 2018 as a result of what the company’s owner described as a “weak” season.

Bottas finished the 2018 season in fifth place in the driver standings with 247 points after failing to win any of the season’s 21 races following a season that resulted in him finished in a career-high third in the standings with 305 points and the first three victories of his career.

Here is what Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, the owner of the Finnish diversified conglomerate, had to say about his company cutting ties with Bottas ahead of the 2019 season, according to GP Fans.

"“It’s been disappointing. It was not entirely his own fault, some of it was due to the team and technical problems, but I think he was quite weak at the end of the year. It’s a difficult place to be as [Lewis] Hamilton’s team-mate, but Valtteri was left behind by many others and was only fifth overall. It was a pretty weak result.”"

While Bottas was faced with a ton of misfortune throughout the season, he still would have finished well behind teammate Lewis Hamilton in the driver standings had the most notable instances of this misfortune gone his way.

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Bottas’s car sustained a flat tire with under three laps remaining in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix while he was leading it, and that allowed Hamilton to pass him for the victory. Bottas ended up finishing the race in 14th place.

Team orders prevented Bottas from fighting Hamilton for the victory in the German Grand Prix on new tires late in the race, and more team orders forced him to allow Hamilton to pass him for the lead and thus the victory in the Russian Grand Prix. Bottas finished in second place in both of these races.

As far as the end of the season is concerned, Bottas certainly did struggle. He finished out the season with four consecutive fifth place finishes, meaning that four of the other five Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing drivers finished ahead of him in each race.

It has already been rumored that Mercedes reserve and test driver Esteban Ocon could replace Bottas for the 2020 season if not at some point during the 2019 season. Wihuri’s withdrawal of their sponsorship from Bottas puts Bottas’s future driving for Mercedes in even more doubt.

What does Valtteri Bottas’s future in Formula 1 with him having been cut by Wihuri? Will the 2019 season be his third and final season driving for Mercedes, or will he continue driving for the team in the 2020 season and perhaps beyond? Will he be replaced by Esteban Ocon even before the 2019 season ends?