When I interviewed Bottas for the magazine last year, it was very apparent how his quest is for performance from within himself. For his predecessor Rosberg, the quest was success and, in recognising he could not beat Hamilton behind the wheel, to step up the psychological warfare and the on-track aggression – even if that came at the expense of the team. Bottas’ personality would simply not allow that. For him, it must come purely from his own performance. “Yes, [Hamilton] is the toughest the team mate there is, I think,” he said in that interview. “Not because of the way he is as a person, just as a driver. But I wouldn’t want it easier. I want the challenge. When I’m able to be ahead and beat him – which I can do – that’s many times better than beating someone else.”
It’s within him. He can do it sometimes. Last year in qualifying for Shanghai or Barcelona, for example, Hamilton just couldn’t match his pace. Why did it happen like that sometimes, but not others, I asked? He paused a while before replying, “I wish I had the answer to that question. Sometimes when you step in the car you are just on it and feel so comfortable. You can push it to the limit immediately on the first lap. Even though you’re guestimating a bit the braking points and grip. But you just know where to brake and how quickly you can turn in. I think that comes from human performance when you’re at your best and so comfortable with everything.”
His mentor Mika Hakkinen is obviously going to be pro-Bottas, but he has never been so publicly gung-ho about his prospects. “Valtteri has a great position in Mercedes,” he said recently. “He’s a mega-great driver. I am confident that he is better than ever, so I have an extremely high expectation for him to be world champion this year. That’s what we’ve been working very hard on for years, all the qualities, all the tools for him to get there.”
Just maybe….