Valtteri Bottas
Neither the family background of this down-to-earth Finn nor his entry into the world of motorsport initially suggested that his career curve would be much steeper than most of his industry colleagues. It was only relatively late, at the age of 12, that Valtteri Bottas, who comes from the small town of Nastola in the south of the country, found his way into karting, where he gained his first experience by 2006, but no successes worth reporting.
Nevertheless, in 2007 he made the leap into the Northern European Cup Formula Renault 2.0, a merger of the German and Dutch Formula Renault 2.0, where he first attracted attention with third place in his debut season in real formula racing. Although he remained in this series in the following year, he also had the opportunity to compete in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, which is positioned above it. The Finn said thank you in his own way and won both championships.
In 2009 and 2010, he competed in the top-flight Formula 3 Euro Series and, surrounded by a wealth of other outstanding talent, finished third overall in his Dallara Mercedes-Benz on both occasions. He was the first driver to win the prestigious Formula 3 Masters on the dune circuit at Zandvoort in the Netherlands in both seasons. In the last of the two years – Bottas had long since attracted the attention of the Grand Prix scene – he also got a test driver contract with the Williams Formula 1 team.
As early as 2011, the Finn's path led him to the GP3 series, which he also won in his first year. Meanwhile, Bottas was increasingly focusing on testing for Team Williams, for the sake of which he deliberately forewent commitments in other racing series in the following season. His calculations promptly paid off when he was offered a cockpit as a regular driver in the traditional British team for 2013. The Finn struggled through the year with an inferior car in the rear midfield; the only bright spot was eighth place at the US Grand Prix, which was rewarded with four championship points. Nevertheless, Bottas stuck to his guns and hoped for better times. For his team, this was the case from 2014 onwards with the switch to Mercedes-Benz engines: the Finn was now finally able to show off his skills to the full, securing fourth position in the final drivers' championship standings with two second and three third places, and clearly ahead of his experienced team-mate Felipe Massa in the process.
However, 2015 and 2016 did not take Bottas any further at Williams. While in the first of the two years he was able to maintain his level to some extent with fifth place in the drivers' championship, but significantly fewer world championship points, he fell back to eighth place in the following year. Although the ever-loyal Finn also had a contract with Williams for 2017, he was given the opportunity to move to the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team following the unexpected retirement of world champion Nico Rosberg – an opportunity he did not pass up. In his debut year alongside Lewis Hamilton, he claimed three Grand Prix victories and ten further podium finishes. In the end, the Finn finished just behind Sebastian Vettel in third place in the drivers' championship. 2018 proved to be a more difficult year, and Bottas failed to score a Grand Prix win. Instead, he slipped back to fifth in the final standings with seven second places and one third, while his British team-mate became Formula One world champion for the fifth time.
The following year, the Finn was more successful than ever and finished runner-up with four wins, seven second places and four third places, with a clear lead over Max Verstappen in Red Bull. in 2020, he built on this success: he won twice, took second place six times and third place three times, and was once again runner-up, albeit by a smaller margin, to the Dutch Red Bull driver. He was also thoroughly successful in 2021, achieving one win, one second place and nine third places behind Verstappen and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton in third place in the driving standings. Bottas switched to Alfa Romeo for the 2022 season.