214 replies to this topic

[MercPower]

What are your thoughts on this guy, have to wait until the season starts but i think he will beat his team mate.

[olliek88]

Looks talented, has a good CV but even with the FP sessions last year i think he'll need to be given time, looking forward to him Vs Pastor though.

[Longtimefan]

I'm expecting him to possibly bin the car in the first 2 races but then really start to impress people.

I think Maldonado will have the upper hand in the points for the first 4 races then he will overcome him and run away with it.

[Owen]

Certainly this guy is getting 'talked up' a lot in the previews.

[Disgrace]

Best CV and most experienced rookie since Hulkenberg, who has started to deliver on that immense promise, and obviously Hamilton. He is much more likely to shine than his fellow rookies, and I hope he does and gives Williams some good headlines. Plus, he's Finnish.

Edited by Disgrace, 04 March 2013 - 22:38.

[drag]

Maldonado will be fine benchmark for him , so yea I cant wait to see if we have star for the future,and its a chance for us to see how really good is Maldonado.

If Bottas is good as Williams are expecting, maybe in him and Hulk we have two future champs. No need for him to impress in the first race ,it takes time and if he has such talent he just need to upgrade that with experience.

[rasul]

Em. I thought the drivers' threads were banned.

[Dolph]

Plus, he's Finnish.

?

[Dolph]

I'm expecting him to possibly bin the car in the first 2 races but then really start to impress people.

I think Maldonado will have the upper hand in the points for the first 4 races then he will overcome him and run away with it.

Wow, how could you possibly expect/predict all that.

[Risil]

Em. I thought the drivers' threads were banned.

Nah, topic of this thread is excitement/disexcitement about Valtteri Bottas and his rookieness.

Discussion of Valtteri's hamster will require a separate thread. Speaking as a dispenser of legal advice, and not as a judge, of course.

Edited by Risil, 04 March 2013 - 23:04.

[TheWilliamzer]

Guys, show me your crystal ball dealer!

[midgrid]

Despite being an F1 rookie, Bottas has so much experience of the Williams team that he is almost more of a known quantity than his third-year team-mate. His prospects depend more on which Maldonado turns up more often this year, in my opinion.

[Kingshark]

Out of all the rookies, Bottas is easily the most hyped up and exciting prospect; according to many journalists and pundits he is the next big thing. Nevertheless, I hope all this pressure doesn't build on him too much, or get to his head. He does have a lot of potential.

[DanardiF1]

Despite being an F1 rookie, Bottas has so much experience of the Williams team that he is almost more of a known quantity than his third-year team-mate. His prospects depend more on which Maldonado turns up more often this year, in my opinion.

He was trained and tested by the team in the same way Hulkenberg was, and we saw how good that was for Nico (and Nico Rosberg before him too).

[Disgrace]

Guys, show me your crystal ball dealer!

Crystal what-now dealer?

[mattferg]

I think he was overhyped by Toto (as Toto is his manager) and that's part of the reason he has the drive. I'm not fully convinced by him yet, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. But as usual with any teammate rivalries between well-liked/supported drivers, it's gonna be brutal...

[BoschKurve]

I was against him being brought in for 2013, but I'm starting to come around to it now. I'm hoping he lives up to a bit of the hype he has been given, but we'll see if he turns out to be what has been claimed of him.

[charly0418]

It would be unfair to match him with Maldonado.

Gutierrez vs Bottas will be interesting do

[ChiltonsCats]

I think he will do really well this year, Williams I expect to be midfield with Sauber/Force India, can easily see him doing the best or close to of those 6 drivers.

[Afterburner]

I hope he does well. I think he's very professional off-track--let's see if he can match that on track.

[Louis Mr. F1]

i've high hopes for Valtteri - hope he'll continue the Finnish honour set out by Keke, Mika and Kimi.

[discover23]

I will make a bold prediction and will be happy to admit if i was wrong : maldonado will be the faster Williams driver.

[CrashPad]

His 2011 GP3 season was kinda weird; in the first half he was very invisible, even dissapointing, but when they got all the pieces together he hauled some serious ass and stormed to claim the title. The final race in Monza was simply fantastic, propably the best feeder-series race I have seen (well, atleast the best GP3 race), and Valtteri showed some nerves of steel that day.
Hopefully he will keep that up in F1.

Edited by CrashPad, 05 March 2013 - 15:25.

[keiichi]

His 2011 GP3 season was kinda weird; in the first half he was very invisible, even dissapointing, but when they got all the pieces together he hauled some serious ass and stormed to claim the title. The final race in Monza was simply fantastic, propably the best feeder-series race I have seen (well, atleast the best GP3 race), and Valtteri showed some nerves of steel that day.
Hopefully he will keep that up in F1.

Well I may be biased, but Felix da Costa also had some epic races last year in GP3.

I think there may be some excessive hype around Bottas, but either way, even if he's not the next big thing, personally I believe he'll be a very solid driver.

[DutchQuicksilver]

People here underestimate Maldonado. Sure, Bottas looks promising, but it's his debut season, so he'll undoubtly make a few mistakes here and there. Have we all forgotten Maldonado's raw speed? He seems to have calmed down a lot as well, so I would be surprised if Bottas beats him in points this season. I still expect Maldonado to come out on top, he has more raw pace than Bottas I think.

[Lone]

People here underestimate Maldonado. Sure, Bottas looks promising, but it's his debut season, so he'll undoubtly make a few mistakes here and there. Have we all forgotten Maldonado's raw speed? He seems to have calmed down a lot as well, so I would be surprised if Bottas beats him in points this season. I still expect Maldonado to come out on top, he has more raw pace than Bottas I think.

What separates Bottas from Maldonado is that Bottas doesn´t make the mistakes Maldonado does, he's a lot more cool headed. Even if Maldonado would have a slight speed advantage Bottas will put a lot of pressure on Maldonado by steadily collecting points. If Maldonado can handle that he might come out on top but that would mean Maldonado would need to do something he's never done before, i.e be driving like he's thinking of the long game. Something in my opinion he lacks and shows no promise of learning anytime soon.

I would be truly surprised if Maldonado beats Bottas during this season, unless the Williams is a truly bad car and only possible of the odd result.

[Puhoon]

What separates Bottas from Maldonado is that Bottas doesn´t make the mistakes Maldonado does, he's a lot more cool headed. Even if Maldonado would have a slight speed advantage Bottas will put a lot of pressure on Maldonado by steadily collecting points. If Maldonado can handle that he might come out on top but that would mean Maldonado would need to do something he's never done before, i.e be driving like he's thinking of the long game. Something in my opinion he lacks and shows no promise of learning anytime soon.

I would be truly surprised if Maldonado beats Bottas during this season, unless the Williams is a truly bad car and only possible of the odd result.

The last races of the season, did you even watch those? Maldonado drove very maturely there.

[Lone]

The last races of the season, did you even watch those? Maldonado drove very maturely there.

I think every member on this board watched all the races, after all aren't we all F1 fanatics more or less? He didn't show maturity, he showed necessity. He needed to do that not to get a race ban or loose his seat but he didn't have pressure from a teammate who was about to beat him. This year is different since he has a teammate who will push him for the position of team leader. And when that happens I'm not convinced he'll be that mature, I believe his true colours will, unfortunately, shine through.

By the way, how many points did he score in the last races?

[BigCHrome]

Maldonado will probably collect more points this year because he's very fast, has gained valuable experience, and hes settled into the team, however, #BOTTAS is going to have some impressive results and will pick up good results if the car allows him to.

[ruby soho]

Maldonado is seriously fast, and he will probably have the upper hand for the season. Bottas is surely a future star, so I expect him to start matching Maldo at some point.

[Anderis]

I expect Bottas to shine at some point. But not in spectacular way (well, maybe not shine then, but I expect him to be very good ;) ). I feel he will be very solid all-rounder, but not very spectacular. I expect many people will question if he is that good until he is paired with a widely-recognised top driver and do well against him. But I expect him to be astonishingly mistakeless, good in traffic and consistent.

But I also expect it will take some time. I predict Maldonado will outpace him on a consistent basis in the first 10 or so races this year. Sometimes maybe by a full second in qualifying. But in the second half of the season I expect Bottas to match Pastor's speed. Who will finish the season with more points will be dependent on how mistake prone will Pastor be this year IMO. If he shows little improvement from last year, Bottas will outscore him. If he is able to stay out of trouble for most of the time, I think his speed will be enough to beat Valtteri this year.

Someone has already pointed that Bottas should put more pressure on Pastor than Senna did. I agree. Therefore I'm not sure how Pastor he handle the pressure of being beaten by rookie. He wasn't that crash-prone in 2011, but nobody expected him to beat Rubens that year, something what he was not that far away from.

[F1Champion]

I'm excited to see what he can do. There is a lot of hype but Mika is impressed by him and the last driver to impress him was Kimi. Its a little hard to gauge Friday session drives, sometimes drivers look really fast as they do Qual sims rather than race work but I hope he's the real deal.

[Wander]

Bottas has been saying in interviews that he aims to match Maldonado in pace by the middle of the season and after that he has to be at least as fast or faster in the second half.

People say he's a good wet weather driver so a wet race could offer him a chance for a surprise result. He isn't known for making a lot of mistakes either, so I think he could prove out to be really consistent already on his debut year. I am looking forward to it, but am not hoping for too much yet. Beating Maldonado in the points would be a great season, I think.

Edited by Wander, 06 March 2013 - 00:28.

[Lord Snooty]

He was trained and tested by the team in the same way Hulkenberg was, and we saw how good that was for Nico (and Nico Rosberg before him too).

Williams do rather have the knack recently of finding drivers with potential who seem to find their best form in other teams (Button, Hulk, Rosberg, Webber etc etc); or perhaps its that the cars weren't quite as good as they could have been...

[okochajj]

he is certainly the birghtest of the lot and he has a big chin

[tarmac]

He should outscore Maldonado 2:1

[Mendel]

In the first few races, the qualifying is going to be important. I predict Vale will not quite match Maldonado´s lap times at first. If both of them have a good day, Maldonado will qualify a tenth and a half faster than Vale. This, I fear, will mean several places worse starting position and it will make race starts tough tests of patience. If he can actually survive race starts in the first few races, then he should end up in the points in most races, slightly behind Maldonado if they both finish and sometimes ahead if strategy plays favorably or Maldonado makes a mistake. Obviously, Bottas will not be mistake-free either, I expect him to spin out once or twice on his rookie season but I expect him to crash far less than Senna and Maldonado last year.

When the European season starts, I expect there will be a very interesting rivalry inside the team between the drivers. This is when it comes down to how the drivers handle pressure and it´s going to depend on how the previous races have gone. In an ideal situation, I would want to see Bottas starting to qualify better than Maldonado and getting top 6 finishes before the halfway point of the season. I would not even rule out a podium or two if the car is anywhere near as good as last season.

On his second and third seasons, is when Bottas will have to eventually really prove himself. And I expect he *will* be the next big thing.

Edited by Mendel, 09 March 2013 - 16:11.

[boldhakka]

MAXIMUM ATTACK

Apart from the obvious talent, I think he'll bring some personality to the track too.

[motorhead]

MAXIMUM ATTACK

Wasn´t that Markku Alen´s nickname?

[DutchQuicksilver]

I know it was Christijan Albers' catch phrase at every race.

[Puhoon]

By the way, how many points did he score in the last races?

Don't know, count yourself if you're interested. That's irrelevant though.

[Mendel]

By the way, how many points did he score in the last races?

Maldonado scored 16 points in the last 6 races in his 2012 campaign.

45 points during the whole season of 20 races... but you have to remember 25 points came from the win in 5th race. Other than that, the last few races were a step up from his early and particularly mid-season performances.

Edited by Mendel, 10 March 2013 - 14:12.

[roadie]

My expectation and hope is that he will perform similarly to the Hulk in 2010. That is taking half the season to get up to speed before matching his team mate. It's rare that a Hamilton comes along and is incredibly fast from the off. Wouldn't it would be ace if the Bott is the same though?

[djparky]

Maldo's one lap pace is amazing, he can't always keep the red mist at bay long enough in the races to make it count. so I would expect him to be quicker than Bottas, but I see Bottas being the better long term bet- what a shame Williams can't run Hulk and Bottas- that would have been exciting

[Fondmetal]

I think he was overhyped by Toto (as Toto is his manager) and that's part of the reason he has the drive. I'm not fully convinced by him yet, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. But as usual with any teammate rivalries between well-liked/supported drivers, it's gonna be brutal...

Agreed over hyped, you got guys winning the Gp2 series, WSR and have not got a drive yet and he jumps in from GP3. Only now he has a drive we can see how good he is.. Maldonado is no fool and will be hard to beat.

[Mendel]

http://www.hs.fi/urh.../a1362806884921

Article is about Kovalainen and the article says Heikki didn´t want to end up as a pay driver like Valtteri Bottas who brings 10 million euros worth of Finnish sponsorship money to the team. Bottas gets his paycheck from a portion of that money.

Should Bottas be considered a pay driver?

Edited by Mendel, 10 March 2013 - 16:47.

[darkkis]

http://www.hs.fi/urh.../a1362806884921

Article is about Kovalainen and the article says Heikki didn´t want to end up as a pay driver like Valtteri Bottas who brings 10 million euros worth of Finnish sponsorship money to the team. Bottas gets his paycheck from a portion of that money.

Should Bottas be considered a pay driver?

Maybe, but then we should also consider Alonso as one.

[Mendel]

Let´s hope he proves himself on the track then. The pay driver stamp will wear off that way ;)

[tarmac]

Ten million? Yesterday it was eight..

I really doubt its even over 5 million. These are not that huge companies