Villeneuve would not drop Bottas at Mercedes
Jacques Villeneuve does not think Mercedes should drop Valtteri Bottas.
Many pundits believe it is likely that team boss Toto Wolff will replace the Finn for 2020 with Mercedes reserve driver Esteban Ocon.
Bottas, 29, is currently testing an unbranded M-Sport world rally championship-spec Ford Fiesta in Germany.
"You always learn something when you drive," Bild newspaper quotes Bottas as saying about the 'secret' test.
Outspoken 1997 world champion Villeneuve thinks Mercedes should keep Bottas as Lewis Hamilton's teammate.
"Why would you do that?" he said when considering the prospect of the Hamilton-Bottas partnership being broken up.
"Of course they should continue with Bottas. How many times have they been first and second this season?" Villeneuve added.
"If he was half a second slower at every race, like he was last year, then ok, you can replace him," he said. "But that is not the case."
As for Ocon, Villeneuve commented: "Why would you take him? He is yet to prove himself. I don't know exactly how good he is and would never take that risk."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
I agree.
I as well.
"And me too"
Villenouve, in his day jumped into a World Championship winning Williams and promptly won a title and then, remarkably more or less jumped out and into f1 obscurity - he is right in his view on Bottas, but who cares?
"....he is right in his view on Bottas, but who cares?..."
Pretty much all that post, you and i included. Otherwise we wouldn't be posting.
Mercedes will retain Bottas for a very unpleasant reason. Wolff's team is pursuing a dual objective: winning a constructors' title and a driver title. Only one driver can win a title no matter what, and Hamilton is Mercedes' preferred and designated driver to do so. Bottas is easy to manage and easily ordered to be fast to keep bringing points for the constructors' title, but not too fast to muck the Hamilton project. And he seems to simply swallow hard and do as he is told.
So, there is no reason for Mercedes to rock their own boat.
Simon Saivil - again you are right in the point you made,viz a biz Bottas and more to the point,Mercedes - Toto may pull his face a little when Bottas makes a mistake on the track but he knows that Hamilton is the butter on his bread. We all feel for the 'underdog' but there is no other seat in f1 for Bottas at the moment.
"...there is no other seat in f1 for Bottas at the moment..."
More than likely you are very right about that!
Funnilly, people often call Bottas Robotas. He either has an amazing control over his emotions, or has fewer of those than mos drivers on the grid.
Most arguments for Bottas to be retained only consider the present. As things are now, Mercedes is likely to win the CC and Hamilton the WDC. But beyond 2019? It’s in the interest of Mercedes to start thinking about the future. With rivals Red Bull and Ferrari, even the rejuvenating Maclaren boasting young guns being prepped for future championships it’s in the interest of Mercedes to put Ocon in its car in 2020, otherwise it will be on the back foot compared to opposition looking ahead to the future. My take
Fair point well made but if Mercedes consider George Russell their future, rather than Ocon it good go well for Valtteri at least in terms of a 2020 seat.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.