Johnny Herbert: ‘Bottas has the right ingredients to lead Audi F1 team’

You can’t help but feel that Alfa Romeo-badged Sauber is treading water until the team becomes Audi in 2026. But that’s not the case for Valtteri Bottas. He seems to have the motivation to stick around long enough to play a part in that new era, when it eventually starts. He still feels he’s got what it takes and looking back to his time beside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes I’d say he never got the credit for the cracking job he did. When he was behind Lewis he wasn’t far behind. The average time difference was very small.

Bottas has the ability to get the best out of a car, but that appears wasted at the moment. Does Sauber lack desire right now because of this waiting game? There doesn’t seem to be a hunger to progress – the team is very average. That’s sad to see. But if Bottas wants to be a part of that future, I would expect him to be working hard behind the scenes to steer the team in the right direction. I expected more performance from Alfa Romeo this year.

Individually, Bottas post-Mercedes appears to be feeling good about himself – he’d have to with that mullet and moustache! It’s a Finnish thing… He seems content and relaxed, just as he did in the similar family environment he experienced at Williams. Mentally he’s in a good place to lead Audi and I think he’s got the right ingredients to do it. I can see some parallels to my own career. In 1996 I went from a race and championship-winning car in the Benetton to Sauber, knowing it was a midfielder. It required a mental reset, but that’s the case for every season. The key thing for me was the good vibe from Peter Sauber, who had respect from his team and rarely lost his temper. It was nice after working with Flavio Briatore.

Coming from being a number two at Benetton, I was facing Heinz-Harald Frentzen who I knew, and he was in his comfort zone at Sauber. I had to do a job to fit in with the team and be competitive, but that seemed easy with Peter. He was good at bringing someone new in and worked hard to make it level. Maybe that came from his background in sports car racing, getting drivers to work together. That relationship was a very important part of me going there and I’m glad I did. I had three great years at Sauber.

“Audi might be having second thoughts about its F1 entry”

I had a good rapport with the guys on my car and I suppose it was like going back to my Lotus days in that respect. That is very important for someone like Valtteri, to feel that you fit, that you are happy with what is going on. You have to feel a part of it, as he seems to.

Valtteri has earnt that right to be central in a team, massively. I’m sure they all respect him highly. We’re still quite a long way out from Audi coming in, but at 34 Bottas can still be the team leader it needs. What he’ll notice is if his qualifying speed goes away, as I did. But what you don’t lose is the racecraft – as we see so obviously in Fernando Alonso. Bottas will bring that because he’s always been a very smart, clean racer, which will not only benefit him but also Audi too. At the other end of the grid you know you can always rely on Max Verstappen, but that’s also true of Valtteri: very reliable, consistent and trustworthy.

There has been some talk that Audi might be having second thoughts about its F1 entry. I hope that’s not the case. It would be weird to U-turn because from a PR point of view it would look like it was bottling it. I’d be surprised if it was true. Will it be easy? Everyone at Audi will be very aware it won’t be, and perhaps board members might be wary of past examples at Toyota and Honda. Even Ferrari has been trying and failing to win another drivers’ championship since 2007. But OEMs have power and I’m sure Audi will employ the right people because that’s the only way it’s going to work.

The perception is it can be hard to convince engineers to work in Italy or Switzerland, but it can be done – if the environment is right. It is a sacrifice if you have a family, as so many mechanics and engineers have these days. But those four rings should be enough to entice and interest good people. At the end of the day, it comes down to good leadership. That’s the job of Andreas Seidl, but Bottas as a driver can play his part in that too. He has it in him.

Johnny Herbert was a Formula 1 driver from 1989-2000 and a Le Mans winner in 1991
Follow Johnny on Twitter @johnnyherbertf1