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Bottas looks back on highlights with Mercedes and his old cars
- GPblog.com
In a Mercedes video Valtteri Bottas says goodbye to his team. In the factory, between his Mercedes cars, he looks back on five great seasons with the German racing stable.
End of time at Mercedes
For Bottas, a new chapter in his Formula One career is about to begin. After a debut in F1 at Williams, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime in 2017 when Nico Rosberg decided to retire from Formula One. The Finn grabbed the opportunity with both hands and impressed with a pole in the third race (Bahrain) and a win in the fourth race in Russia.
Although Bottas had a solid first season with three wins, four poles and a third place in the championship, he was unable to carry on this strong start. In 2018, he finished fifth in the championship without a single victory to his name, where his teammate ran away with the world title.
Pressure on Bottas
Despite pressure from Esteban Ocon and later George Russell, the Finn retained his seat between 2019 and 2021 as well. In 2019 and 2020, Bottas also recovered, with four wins in 2019 and two in 2020. In 2021, things got worse and worse and he was unable to keep up in the title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. The Finn won one race.
However, with five titles among the constructors, Bottas has made a significant contribution to the team and that has not been forgotten. In a closing video, the Finn gets one more chance to look back on all the great moments, including ten wins in his entire time with Mercedes.