Poll: Does Bottas deserve his Mercedes seat? - You do not have permission to vote in this poll.
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No
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Bottas, does he deserve his Mercedes seat?
#21

I agree Forza, if Bottas doesn't perform miracles Ocon will be in the second Silver car by 2020. If things start a bit wonky for Bottas I fully expect Ocon to be promoted swiftly and poor old Bottas to do a Kvyat.
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#22

(26-11-2018, 10:35 PM)Jody Barton Wrote:  I agree Forza, if Bottas doesn't perform miracles Ocon will be in the second Silver car by 2020. If things start a bit wonky for Bottas I fully expect Ocon to be promoted swiftly and poor old Bottas to do a Kvyat.

Yeah Jody, pretty much how I see it also, in one respect its a pity as Bottas is one of the good guys, really hasnt done much wrong, just cant compete consistently near the same level as his team mate.....then again you dont get a race seat for being nice.

"You live more for 5 minutes going fast on a bike than other people do in all of their life"....Marco Simoncelli
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#23

I am still where I was a few months ago, no way should he be in the Mercedes. The bottom line is he simply is not good enough. I say it about F1 drivers all the time regardless of what car they drive they are all fantastic performers, even the pay to drive guys but at the end of the day there can only ever be a few of them in with a distinct chance at winning the WDC. Bottas is in one of the best cars but bad luck aside he was not performing at the level the car is capable of.

I would disagree with the comment about it benefiting Hamilton, okay in some ways it did because there is nobody to really take points of him by being as good but I guess if he was he would also have taken points off other drivers. I am not saying this because I am a Hamilton fan (I really should not need to say this but such is the divisiveness of his character I feel obligated) but he simply is an amazing talent and a very special driver and has continued even at his age to get better and better. I personally put a lot of that down to learning off what I would call a superior technical driver in Nico Rosberg. Rosberg pushed him all the way each and every day and allowing for the fact I hated him at the time I respect enormously what Rosberg did for Mercedes and in a strange way for Hamilton. Debate will always rage about whether he deserved to win a title and that he was lucky, sure he was but I say this is every form of sport you need a little lady luck on your side and the bottom line is he got the points, Hamilton did not. He deserved his title. To me even that held a lesson for Hamilton.

Bottas should not be mentioned in the same breath as Nico, he is not pushing Hamilton at all and I doubt Hamilton is learning much from him. How much of Hamilton is a Diva in the sense he wants a compliant team mate I dont know. I guess if you dislike him you would say a lot. There is no question the team harmony at Mercedes is better with Bottas than Rosberg so you could make the argument that is what everyone wants. My sense is Hamilton does not really care much about any driver in his team he wants to beat all and sundry, he is the only driver I have heard this year to say how he wishes other teams would join the race upfront which to me gels with his 'bring it on' persona. (On a side note here I cannot wait to see Vettels reactions next year when Leclerc is nipping at his heels as I absolutely think he will be!)

Love Bottas as a guy, super nice but he is simply not absolute top shelf material. When Rosberg quit Wolff panicked in my view. I understand he wanted to make sure the team competed for the WCC but maybe he should have grabbed Ocon then. The next question will be is Ocon good enough for Mercedes and that is something we have to find out. A year on the sideline is not going to do him any good whatsoever but it is a shame he is out of the sport for now, money aside Force India would be a better team with Ocon than they are with Perez who in my opinion has already started his downward slide.
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#24

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/140866...g-his-seat

Mercedes' Wolff sets out what Bottas must do to keep seat for 2020.

Valtteri Bottas must perform at the same level as Lewis Hamilton in the 2019 Formula 1 season to keep his Mercedes race seat for next year, says boss Toto Wolff.

Bottas had a disappointing 2018 campaign where, despite a strong start, he ended up failing to win a race while team-mate Hamilton captured the world title.

With Mercedes reserve Esteban Ocon looking for a way back to an F1 race seat in 2020, Mercedes has an obvious option if Bottas does not lift his game.

Wolff thinks that one of the key factors that went against Bottas in 2019 was bad luck, which included him losing a victory in Baku when he ran over debris on the track.

But he made clear Bottas must perform at a higher level, and says the driver himself is well aware of that.
"Valtteri knows exactly where he needs to be next year," said Wolff.

"He needs to have all the bad luck gone and perform on a level with Lewis. That is what is needed for the 2020 year. He knows very well that, and he has that in him."

Wolff warned that the challenge will be even harder this year as Hamilton keeps raising his game.
"Lewis improving means Valtteri needs to improve," explained Wolff.

"When a man holds you round the throat, I don't think he has come to apologise" 
Ayrton Senna on Nigel Mansell, SPA 1987.   Angel
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#25

(04-01-2019, 02:35 PM)PapaofGags Wrote:  Valtteri Bottas must perform at the same level as Lewis Hamilton in the 2019 Formula 1 season to keep his Mercedes race seat for next year...

Well thats him f*cked then isnt it  Tongue

"You live more for 5 minutes going fast on a bike than other people do in all of their life"....Marco Simoncelli
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#26

(04-01-2019, 05:58 PM)forzaferrari Wrote:  Well thats him f*cked then isnt it  Tongue

<morini pointless prediction>
I think Bottas will do better against Hamilton in 2019 than Vettel will do against LeClerc Big Grin
</morini pointless prediction>

Discuss that one, fuckers!

Wink

Oh, and Happy New Year Big Grin
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#27

Haha..... Happy new year.   Tongue  Laughing   Big Grin

"When a man holds you round the throat, I don't think he has come to apologise" 
Ayrton Senna on Nigel Mansell, SPA 1987.   Angel
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#28

I think if Lewis hits the ground running in Melbourne and maintains his end of season form Bottas could very well be suicidal by Monaco. Lewis tends to start slow though and build to a peak level around the summer and just builds a relentless head of steam. So Bottas will need to disrupt Lewis before the likes of the Austrian and British GPs.

As to Leclerc Vs Vettel. Who knows. I do think Leclerc will give Vettel a run for his money, I do still think he'll (Vettel) have enough in hand over the season, but I can see the two of them getting in each others way. To be honest though, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Leclerc does come out on top.

The other interesting pairing will be Verstappen and Gasly, I didn't think much of young Pierre before he got into F1. I'll openly admit I didn't see what all the hype was about, but now I think the lad has some chops. Pretty sure Max will have far too much for him, but I don't think he'll have it all his own way. Plus as Gasly matures into the RBR set up he might prove to be more of a thorn than people currently think.
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#29

I'm wondering whether Bottas' style was emphasising an inherent Mercedes tyre issue of them over heating or usage. At the start of the season, while Merc were suffering a great deal with hitting their operating window, Bottas was their main contender. Perhaps indicating the more aggressive tyre usage was putting his car into a better window during the cold race anomalies.

During the "European" leg as Mercedes got a better understanding of the car, his qually was probably on par with Lewis. Come the "flyaways" Lewis was at his best and Bottas at his lowest, only on a couple of occasions was he out of the usual 0.2-3s we see Lewis have in hand in qualifying.

It was during the races it really fell apart, where he just couldn't keep pace. Again he was fine, and the main contender before Spain. Was it a case of once the Merc could find the operating window, his style took the car out of it again - The reversal of what we saw at the start of the season.

Nobody see's him closing the 0.2-3s gap in qually, Lewis' hot laps are just too hot. Perhaps his only hope is that he was worked tirelessly with the engineers on the new regs to ensure his style is more complementary during the races, because at this stage he isn't, or cant, change his style.

My previous sig was obsolete, McLaren ain't disappointing Heshy no more.
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#30

(04-01-2019, 09:35 PM)Jody Barton Wrote:  Lewis tends to start slow though and build to a peak level around the summer and just builds a relentless head of steam. 

(06-01-2019, 12:48 PM)Monster Hesh Wrote:  At the start of the season, while Merc were suffering a great deal with hitting their operating window, Bottas was their main contender. 


Whilst agree with the broad sentiment, I'm not sure I agree with the two statements above in entirety. 

Hamilton essentially had the 2018 Melbourne weekend in the bag, he dominated in fact. Circumstances took the win away, but it wasn't a driver error just some misfortune. And I'm not taking anything away from Ferrari here, after all they kept Vettel out long enough to benefit from circumstances. No arguments. Vettel surprisingly has a better win count than Hamilton at Melbourne, but in fairness Hamilton has had a couple of wins snatched from him at that venue.

As to Hamilton “starting slow” in general, overall I would agree he gets better as the season progresses but I'm not sure he ever really starts slow. After all, he's taken pole for the last 5 years in Melbourne and also has 7 poles in 12 attempts. That doesn't really smack of someone who isn't motivated at the start of the season chaps Wink

The only year I think he really has started badly was 2016 when Rosberg was riding a superb run of wins (and even then he tool pole at Melbourne and won more races in the season than anyone else).
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