#I just cba with the slander lol

[ricciardodaniels]

But he was replaced. The man was fired for being incompetent, then dragged his geriatric ass over to Alfa Romeo to take the seat of a younger driver. He's pathetic and never should've been in merc in the first place. Toto is probably jumping up and down from excitement, the guy never liked him. George should've gone straight into that seat in 2019 and he’d be at least P2 in the championship right now with Lewid being P1. Then no one would have to worry about Max. But now, because of Valtteri Bottas and his non existent driving skills, Lewis is P2. The man is a clown. A waste of space.

ooft. so hateful, anon. not the vibe.

this perspective really interests me though because it implies to me at least that you weren’t watching f1 in the mid-late 2010s and haven’t really ever ventured backwards. and that’s absolutely fine, nothing wrong with that whatsoever – I’ve never had any interest in the feeder series so when people appear in f1 I know nothing about them either so it’s kinda the same thing?

but here’s what you might’ve missed:

with the exception of his 2013 williams rookie year (in which he still beat his team mate, 2 year vet maldonado) bottas has never finished outside the top 10 of the WDC. his only other finish outside the top 5 was his final year at williams, when the team as a whole first started to go into decline but he still pulled through in 8th place. if you wanna talk about consistent results, even when he had massa for a team mate (past title fighter, 10+ years more experience) he beat him in the championship all 3 years they were paired together and often outperformed him both in qualifying and in the races.

now, picture it. it’s 2016. the season is over. nico rosberg has finally beat hamilton to a WDC title when–gasp–he announces he will retire from the sport and will not return for next year. valtteri gets the call up for 2017, he’ll go from a team starting to decline to the fastest car on the grid. he is under an immense amount of pressure: a new team, new 3x champion teammate, a new car to try and get to grips with and what does he do on his mercedes debut?

podium, bitch. his first win with them came 3 races later. he finished 3rd in the 2017 championship and the only people above him were the two multiple world title winners on this podium with him.

with regards to his mercedes track record, he’s been top 3 in the WDC the 3/4 seasons, 2/4 of those being 2nd positions. he’s had race wins, pole positions and fastest laps with this team, all contributing to the 4 WCC titles they’ve achieved while he’s been with them.

a brief george related interlude, say that george should have gone straight to mercedes in 2019 is, frankly, ludicrous. he is exceptionally skilled and it’s taken him time to take his current car to where it is now. think about it, it would’ve have been the same process at mercedes but now with 10x the pressure on his rookie, 21 year old shoulders. for a bit of perspective, lando who was a rookie the same year and is also a very talented driver only managed 11th in the wdc that year (sainz 6th, mclaren 4th in constructors). to put george in a merc that early on and take away bottas’s consistent podiums from their points, I struggle to see merc having run away with the WCC in the same fashion, ESPECIALLY with ferrari’s 19 podiums.

now, are there other drivers on the grid that could drive that car to victory? yes, I’m sure there are. however, valtteri’s skill is not the only thing that has made him invaluable to mercedes. the dynamic between him and lewis is not one often found amongst teammates these days in that they have a genuine friendship and respect for each other, a balance that mercedes desperately wanted to achieve after the emotional warfare that was “brocedes”. he cares about the success of the team as a whole and as frustrating as it is for us to hear “valtteri, it’s james” imagine what it’s like to be bottas. in almost 5 years, seeing him lose his rag or call himself the number 2 driver or hit out at the team is a rare sight, and that matters. it’s a level of professionalism that is hard to come across in a driver and a composure that is incredibly difficult to retain over such a long time.

in short, to say valtteri is an ��incompetent”, “pathetic” “waste of space” who “never should’ve been in merc in the first place” is not only insulting but is simply not true. hope this helps 😘

(p.s. can we pls give up the narrative that he’s “geriatric” lol he’s literally 32)