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Formula 1: The 2019 season will make or break Valtteri Bottas’s career

By Asher Fair

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 14: Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP poses for a photo during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit on March 14, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 14: Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP poses for a photo during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit on March 14, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images) /
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There is no driver for whom the 2019 Formula 1 season will matter more than Valtteri Bottas, who is set to enter his third season driving for Mercedes.

Just five days after winning his first career Formula 1 championship in the 2016 season by narrowly beating Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport teammate Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg made the shocking decision to retire from Formula 1.

This prompted the Brackley-based team to sign Valtteri Bottas, who was set to return to Williams Martini Racing for the fifth consecutive season, as Hamilton’s teammate for the 2017 season.

Throughout the 2017 season, rumors swirled that the Silver Arrows may not sign Bottas to continue driving for the team through the 2018 season, but they ended up signing to a one-year contract extension.

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Similar rumors swirled throughout the 2018 season, but Mercedes ended up signing the 29-year-old Finn to another one-year contract extension through the 2019 season, with this contract extension carrying an additional one-year option.

But the 2019 season will make or break Bottas’s career, as these rumors have grown even more intense. There is speculation that Mercedes reserve driver Esteban Ocon will replace him in the 2020 season or perhaps even before the 2019 season concludes if Bottas does not perform up to expectations and the team feel that Ocon will be more beneficial to them in both Hamilton’s quest for his sixth championship and the team’s quest for their sixth consecutive constructor championship.

As a result, Bottas, whose combined win total of three in his first two seasons driving for Mercedes is two wins lower than the lowest single-season win total of any of the team’s drivers and whose top finish in the driver standings is lower than the lowest finish in the standings of any of the team’s drivers since the start of the V6 turbo hybrid era in 2014, is on the hot seat heading into the 2019 season, and he needs to win early and often and contend for the championship if he expects to return to the team for a fourth season in 2020.

This is no easy task for the three-time Grand Prix winner. But it is one that will determine whether or not the 2019 season ends up being not only his final season driving for Mercedes but his final season driving for one of Formula 1’s top-tier teams.

His time to shine is now.

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How will Valtteri Bottas perform in the 2019 Formula 1 season? Will he do enough to warrant Mercedes re-signing him for the 2020 season and perhaps beyond?

The 2019 schedule, which you can see here, consists of 21 races, and the first of these 21 races is scheduled to take place this Sunday, March 17. This race, the Australian Grand Prix, is set to be broadcast live on ESPN from Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia beginning at 1:10 a.m. ET, so be sure to tune in to it.

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