Fred Vasseur thinks that Bottas is “underrated”

Upon arrival at Alfa Romeo during the offseason, Valtteri Bottas did not take long to win the hearts of the Swiss team’s fans. After spending five seasons at Mercedes, boasting 10 victories and 67 podium finishes, the Finn now takes on the role of number one at Alfa Romeo for the first time. And so far, the native of Nastola is succeeding in his debut, silencing some of the criticism that targeted his performance during his time at Mercedes.

Fred Vasseur, the boss of Alfa Romeo, did not hesitate to come forward and defend his new protégé. When The Race asked him if Bottas was underrated, Vasseur did not hesitate: « I think so. I think he has suffered a bit from that. »

« If you look at the gap between Valtteri and Lewis in qualifying, it was less than 0.2%. That’s minimal compared to all the other guys who are ahead, Max [Verstappen and his teammates] or so on. It’s certain that the performance in the race is always a bit more difficult when you have Lewis ahead of you. And when you start from the front row, you are always very exposed.

» Vasseur defends.

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Bottas has found his form again at Alfa Romeo, where he has already achieved a fifth-place finish at Imola as his best result. The Finnish driver has already scored 24 points, just 4 less than a certain Lewis Hamilton. A beautiful revenge for Bottas, who has often been criticized for his inability to compete with the seven-time world champion on the track.

But at Alfa Romeo, the record holder for the number of consecutive Q3 entries must also become the team leader and help his young rookie teammate, Guanyu Zhou, adapt quickly to the top category. A mentoring role for which Bottas has worked hard.

« He is putting in a lot of effort in this field, ensures Fred Vasseur. « For sure, he has learned a lot at Mercedes in the past five or six years. But he was always a bit in Lewis’s shadow, and he is doing an excellent job. »

Zhou had a promising start to the season by scoring his first point in his debut race in Bahrain, which made Bottas “proud”.