Mercedes AMG Petronas. The team Juan Manuel Fangio🇦🇷 won 5 world titles with in the 1950s. But Mercedes would return to Formula 1 and now are back to winning ways. But while this may not be a championship year this will still be a part of the struggles of Valtteri Bottas🇫🇮 in 2018. The Finn would start his career with Williams from 2013-2016 and when the 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg🇩🇪 retired from racing Valtteri Bottas would get the call to race for Mercedes. This would come as Valtteri's big break as he scored 3 wins 13 podiums and finished 3rd in the drivers championship 58 points behind teammate and 4 time world champion Lewis Hamilton🇬🇧. So after a breakthrough season hopes were high for Valtteri Bottas in 2018, Well things would take a hit in Australia🇦🇺. In Q3 Bottas hit the grass ever so slightly unsettling his Mercedes and putting him out of qualifying. Insult to injury he also needed a new gearbox after his wreck so he'd start 15th and could only recover to 8th. Then they headed to Bahrain🇧🇭 where Valtteri hoped to put Australia behind him he qualified in 3rd behind the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel🇩🇪 and Kimi Raikkonen🇫🇮. But he'd get off the start line well and get by his Finnish compatriot. After the VSC for Daniel Ricciardo🇦🇺 lost power in his Red Bull the race would go again and Bottas would be in a comfortable 2nd. The Ferraris were doing a 2 stop strategy going to the soft compound tyre before going to supersofts at the end. So Mercedes decided to go to a 1 stop for Bottas putting medium tyres on his car. They might be slower harder compound but they are more durable. So Kimi Raikkonen pits for his last stop but a horrific moment happened as a mechanic was trying to remove the left rear wheel but for whatever reason it was stuck every other tyre was changed the green light was shown and Kimi was released and RAN OVER his mechanic's leg! So this put Raikkonen out of the race and put the Ferrari mechanic in the hospital but at least he recovered to work still for the team. So due to that malfunction Vettel got a radio message saying "Plan B Plan B. Kimi has retired for an issue." Which meant that he has to make the tyres he got at lap 18 to survive the rest of the race. This gave a golden opportunity for Valtteri to pounce initially he was thinking about saving his tyres for defense from a late charge but now he can use them to PROVIDE a late charge. And that is exactly what he'd do closing fast to Vettel's rear wing and on the last lap he was right there but unfortunately he was just short as Vettel would survive to win and Bottas would finish 2nd. Now was China🇨🇳 where the Finn hoped to use that momentum in Bahrain and turn it into a win. He would once again qualify 3rd and once again would jump Raikkonen at the start. The difference here is Mercedes would undercut Sebastian Vettel giving Bottas the lead and it was looking good but a saftey car would come out after Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley🇳🇿 was spun by his teammate Pierre Gasely🇫🇷 leaving debris all over turn 14. So some drivers pit for fresh tyres but Bottas stayed out along with Vettel and Hamilton. Lap 36 and Bottas would need to push to escape the chasing pack but the Finn would be chased down and passed by the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. The Aussie would go on to win the race while Bottas would finish 2nd again. So Azerbaijan🇦🇿 would host round 4 and for the 3rd week in a row Valtteri Bottas qualifies 3rd. What's next he is gonna finish 2nd again? Well he didn't gain a place at the start but didn't lose one either behind Hamilton and Vettel. But after they pitted gave Bottas the lead but he had to stop though but things would fall into place as with 11 laps to go the saftey car comes out after Red Bull teammates Daniel Riccardo and Max Verstappen🇳🇱 crash into turn 1. This gave Bottas the best chance to pit for tyres and keep the lead ahead of Sebastian Vettel. The race restart would take place with 4 laps to go as Bottas would get away well but here comes Sebastian Vettel and dives it in there but he goes too deep making the German fall back to 4th. A lap later and Valtteri Bottas is pulling away from everyone but oh no! He ran over some debris leaving him with a puncture! What a tough break for him he did nothing wrong all race long and he isn't even going to finish the race from his puncture. At least his teammate was able to win getting Mercedes their first win of the season.
Spain🇪🇸 comes around and Valtteri is super hungry for a win trying to come back after the disappointment from his puncture last race and for the first time he qualified better than 3rd this year 2nd! Behind Lewis Hamilton and that is how it ended as the silver arrows were in their own zip code.
Monaco🇮🇩 would not be so good for Bottas as he'd finished 5th but Canada 🇨🇦 the Finn would return to form as he qualified and finished in 2nd. France🇫🇷 would be different cause true he qualified 2nd again he would get spun around going into turn 1 by Sebastian Vettel and Bottas could only recover his Mercedes back to 7th. Now comes Austria🇦🇹 a track the Bottas dominated and won last year so he knows this track well. He would prove that by getting his first pole of the year. Now comes the start as he would lose out to a fast starting Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen as well but would pull a brilliant move by using the draft from Verstappen and Raikkonen to slingshot himself back to 2nd. Now all that was left is his teammate ahead of him. The Finn was lying back, seeing Hamilton in front of him minding his time, waiting for the right time to strike but he is slowing out of turn 3! At lap 14 he is slowing down to a halt! And as David Croft would say on the broadcast "What has happened to his car? Or his engine? We know what's happened to his race, its been ruined!" A dejected Valtteri Bottas gets on the radio and says "My gearbox is gone. Gearbox is not working." It wasn't a gearbox problem that failed him it was a loss of hydraulic pressure. To add salt to the wounds Hamilton would retire from a fuel pressure problem. It was a disappointing end to a great day for Mercedes. So race number 10 happens in Britain🇬🇧 Bottas would qualify 4th but would be 2nd after an great start and pitstops but a saftey car for Marcus Ericsson🇸🇪 means that strategy would come into play and both silver arrows stay out because they believe they have better tyre wear so with 15 laps remaining Bottas leads Vettel and a lap later another saftey car comes out this time from Renault's Carlos Sainz🇪🇸 and the Hass of Romain Grosjean🇫🇷 so Vettel is now back on Valtteri's rear wing but at least he has fewer laps to furiously defend from Vettel. The race would be restarted with 10 laps to go and Bottas would defend with all his might but it wasn't enough. Just like China Valtteri Bottas would be overtaken by a car with fresh tyres this time it was Vettel, Hamilton and Raikkonen. Bottas would lose out again and finish 4th. The next half of the season would start at Germany🇩🇪 the home race for Mercedes. Hamilton would start 14th from a loss of hydraulics. So Valtteri lifted the spirits by getting 2nd in qualifying. He'd battle with Kimi Raikkonen all race and when Vettel retired Bottas pitted for ultrasofts. So now all that stands in his way of a victory is Lewis Hamilton and he would give him a run for his money. But he unfortunately would not get the win as he would be told by team strategist "Valtteri it's James, please hold position I'm sorry. "
The Finn response was "Copy James." Bottas also would be announced before the race that he would return for 2019 so this proves that he is a loyal team player. People definitely thought that after Hungary🇭🇺 Bottas would start 2nd and would lose out to Vettel during the first round of stops but after a air gun problem for Ferrari Bottas would get by Vettel. But the Finn was focusing on Kimi Raikkonen who was doing a two stop strategy. Bottas would stay out for the rest of the race and hold up Vettel and Raikkonen but with 5 laps to go the German seizes 2nd but Bottas would not give up and damages his front wing and loses any chance at getting a podium and to make things go from bad to worse he'd get in a fender bender with Daniel Ricciardo with 3 laps to go trying to salvage anything from his race so knowing they were in the wrong Bottas got a radio call from his engineer who said "Give back the position to Ricciardo because-"
Bottas interupts and asks "Why?"
His engineer replies "Why because of the uh, the touching." Valtteri eventually lost out to Ricciardo but was very frustrated he says on the radio "It's his own fault to come outside of me so I'm not going to let him by." Disappointment would continue at Belgium🇧🇪 as new engine components meant he'd start from the back and finished 4th. Italy🇮🇹 brought some hope for Bottas who would return to the podium but he had controversy. Bottas got the podium after Verstappen got penalized for forcing him off the track. But that isn't what Valtteri would have a little controversy. Mercedes used Bottas to hold Raikkonen up to help Hamilton close the gap to eventually get the Brit to win the race. Which Ferrari lovers did not take kindly to. Despite that Bottas would finish 4th at Singapore🇸🇬 and next was Russia🇷🇺 and Valtteri seemed to get the pep back in his step by getting pole! Now can be the best opportunity to FINNALY get an overdue victory of 2018 he gets away well and falls to 2nd after pitstops but the only driver ahead of Bottas is Verstappen who is going long before he stops but he recieves this radio call from his engineer. "So you need to let Lewis by into turn 13 this lap." After Germany Mercedes know that Bottas is a trustworthy team player when it comes to team orders but it would not sit so well with Bottas this time. Bottas would say "Why Lewis isn't getting through Verstappen? I was gonna go past the next lap." Then he hears "Valtteri it's James, we had a risk with Lewis against Vettel he has a small blister. I had to do this to make sure we secured this I understand." So he held station towards the end and asks if Hamilton would let him back through cause he helped Hamilton against his title rival Vettel. But the team said no as Bottas would be a bridesmaid again. He would get a call from the team boss on the cooldown lap Toto Wolff.
"Valtteri this is Toto. Difficult day for you and difficult day for us, Let's discuss this afterwards when we come together we'll explain things." Hamilton had no idea the team would do that so he said that he'd return the favor to Valtteri when he can when he clinches the world championship. Bottas would go to finish 2nd at Japan🇯🇵 and 5th at USA🇺🇸, Mexico🇲🇽, Brazil🇧🇷, and Abu Dhabi🇦🇪. Bottas never got that win he fought so hard for this year. The Finn would finish 5th in the championship standings this year 161 behind Lewis Hamilton, 2 points behind Verstappen and 4 behind Kimi Raikkonen. People look at this year and wonder "What if?" What if Valtteri's luck wasn't so rotten? What if he won Germany or Russia? This might not be a championship year but people still wonder, What might have been for Valtteri Bottas in 2018?