Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

sunnuntai 2. syyskuuta 2012

Will Bottas get a race seat at Williams for 2013?

The second half of the Formula 1 season has now started and this is the time when the drivers have negotiations with different teams on their future. Williams reserve driver, Finnish Valtteri Bottas is one of the drivers in the limelight at the moment. The 23-year-old Finn hasn´t been participating in any other racing series but purely concentrated on the work with Williams. He´s been driving in most first free practices on Fridays and he has done a tramendously excellent job. At the beginning of the season it seemed to be a clear fact that after working this year as a reserve driver Bottas would be given a race seat at Williams for 2013.

Now this fact seems to have changed! I had already taken Bottas´s future race seat for granted as especially Senna´s work at Williams has been less impressive. Of course there´ve been some decent results but many mistakes as well, like destroying the car in practices... Maldonado instead has been extremely fast and his victory at Barcelona showed there´s a huge potential in the Venezuelan driver! On the other hand I guess Maldonado holds some kind of an unofficial record of causing collisions this season! But I always thought it would be Senna who would be replaced by the young Finn.

But... (Why there always has to be a "but"...?) Both current drivers bring a great deal of money to the team! So now there have been talks that in order to get a race seat for 2013 Bottas has to bring a significant amount of money to the team, some have talked about 10 million euros... I´m so angry about this! This is so unfair! Bottas is a brilliant young driver who definitely deserves to get the race seat due to his skills and the impressive work that the man has done! I understand that the teams need money to run the team but money should never be the key factor when hiring drivers to the team!

Of course sponsors and financial support is a part of the Formula 1 world. And I´d be very happy if there were some Finnish companies which would like to support Bottas´s Formula 1 career financially. And I think they should do that because an awesome young talent like Valtteri Bottas makes us all very proud to be Finnish. But money should never be the number one condition for getting a race seat! Talent, skills and raw speed are the things that make a staggering Formula 1 driver, not the contents of your bank account! Money of course helps the team to develop the car and bring the upgrades but no matter how many 100-dollar bills you have in the cockpit they don´t help you drive the car faster if you´re lacking the talent! Valtteri Bottas has everything in terms of talent and speed that are needed to win races and he deserves to get the race seat for 2013! I hope from the bottom of my heart that they realize this at Williams at the end of the season.

One of the reasons why I respect and admire Kimi Räikkönen so very much is the fact that he has had to fight his way to the very top. He doesn´t come from a very wealthy family who would have given him everything "on a golden plate". Everything that he has achieved in the racing world is due to his exceptional talent and skills. Of course you can´t choose your family and this doesn´t mean that Hamilton for example wouldn´t have the talent. But it´s different when your career has always been financially secured ever since as a kid. I do consider Hamilton an exceptionally fast and gifted driver but he has never been forced to fight for his race seat like many other drivers. But Kimi is a great example that you can achieve anything if you´re devoted to what you do and you have the talent.

I may be naive and I admit I don´t understand much of the cruel business world. But my heart beats for Formula 1 racing and even knowing that it is definitely money that rules the world there would be a tiny spot left in the Formula 1 world where it would be a question of how good you are at the wheel of your car instead of how much money you have... It may be too much asked but I do hope that at the end of the day Bottas will get the race seat for 2013. NOT because he´s supported financially by some Finnish companies BUT because there aren´t many drivers in the racing world who are able to drive the FW34 like the Finn does!

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