Valtteri Bottas: Two Championship Runner-Up Finishes and a Cadillac Debut

Valtteri Bottas is a Finnish racing driver who has competed in Formula One since 2013. He finished runner-up in the world championship twice with Mercedes, in 2019 and 2020, and he has won ten Grands Prix. In 2026 he is driving for Cadillac in the team's debut season.

Who is Valtteri Bottas?

Valtteri Viktor Bottas was born on 28 August 1989 in Nastola, Finland. He has competed in Formula One for Williams, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo and Sauber, and now Cadillac. Across his Formula One career he has won ten races and taken 20 pole positions.

Bottas studied automotive engineering at a vocational school in Heinola and graduated as an auto mechanic. He completed his mandatory military service at the Finnish Defence Forces Sports School in Lahti, where his rank is lance corporal.

Ten Grands Prix, two runner-up championships with Mercedes and a Cadillac debut season in 2026.

How did Bottas start in karting?

A chance visit to a karting event, advertised at the supermarket near home during a shopping trip with his grandfather, sparked his interest at six. Mika Hakkinen was the Finnish driver he looked up to as a boy. In 2005 he finished eighth at the Karting World Cup for P.D.B. Racing, with a Gillard chassis and Parilla engines.

He then moved into the lower formulae and won both the 2008 Formula Renault Eurocup and the Northern European Cup in the same season. He took the Eurocup by three points from Daniel Ricciardo. The double repeated what Filipe Albuquerque had achieved in 2006. In 2007 he also won three of the four races in the Formula Renault UK Winter Series, though he could not take the title without an MSA-registered licence.

How did Bottas win the Masters and GP3 titles?

In 2009 Bottas joined ART Grand Prix for the Formula 3 Euroseries and finished third, with two poles but no race wins. In June 2009 he won the Masters of Formula 3, and in 2010 he won it again, becoming the first driver to win the title twice.

In 2011 he stayed with ART for the GP3 Series. After a tough start he won in each of the last four race weekends and clinched the title by winning the penultimate race, ahead of his teammate James Calado, who later raced for Jaguar Racing.

How did Bottas's test role at Williams prepare him?

Williams signed Bottas as its official Formula One test driver in January 2010, after his first year in the Formula 3 Euro Series. He ran straight-line aerodynamic tests in the FW32 that year and took part in a post-season young drivers' test at Yas Marina in 2011. In 2012 he took part in fifteen Friday practice sessions.

His Grand Prix weekend debut came at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix, a step that followed his GP3 title and a wider role within the team.

What was Bottas's debut season at Williams like?

Williams announced in November 2012 that Bottas would replace Bruno Senna and partner Pastor Maldonado. He qualified 16th and finished 14th on his debut at the Australian Grand Prix. His best result of the year was eighth at the United States Grand Prix, which earned his first Formula One points.

In Canada he lined up third behind Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, the first Williams in the top ten that year, but he finished 14th. He felt the car lacked pace and that strategy made little difference. He ended the season 17th in the championship with four points, scoring four of Williams's five.

How did Bottas's 2014 season bring his first podiums?

In 2014 Bottas took his maiden podium at the Austrian Grand Prix, where he held off the Mercedes cars to finish third. He then finished second at the British Grand Prix after Nico Rosberg retired, and second again at the German Grand Prix. Those results gave him three podiums in a row.

Williams locked out the front row at the Austrian Grand Prix, with Bottas second on the grid behind Felipe Massa, the team's first front-row lockout since the 2003 German Grand Prix. Later he was third at the Russian Grand Prix with the fastest lap and third again at Abu Dhabi. He finished fourth in the championship with 186 points and six podiums.

What did the 2015 and 2016 Williams seasons bring?

In 2015 a back injury kept Bottas out of the Australian Grand Prix, but he returned to score points and took third places at the Canadian and Mexican Grands Prix. He finished fifth in the championship with 136 points, and Williams kept third place among the constructors.

In 2016 he claimed the team's only podium of the year at the Canadian Grand Prix, starting seventh and climbing to third with a one-stop strategy. At Baku he set an unofficial Formula One record speed of 378 km/h (235 mph) during qualifying for the European Grand Prix. He finished the season eighth with 85 points.

Why did Bottas move to Mercedes for 2017?

In January 2017 Mercedes signed Bottas to partner Lewis Hamilton after Nico Rosberg's shock retirement from the sport. He finished third on his debut for the team at the Australian Grand Prix, behind Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton. He then took his first career pole at Bahrain.

His first win came at the Russian Grand Prix, where he overtook both Ferraris on the opening lap. That made him the fifth Finnish driver to win a Grand Prix. He added pole and victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, and at Abu Dhabi he took pole and his third win. He finished third in the 2017 championship with 305 points, against 363 for Hamilton.

What were the 2019 and 2020 title battles like?

Bottas finished runner-up to Hamilton in both 2019 and 2020. In 2019 he won the Australian Grand Prix by more than 20 seconds, his fourth Grand Prix win, and he took four wins in the season. He led the championship after a pole and victory at Azerbaijan, a lead that ended when Hamilton won four races in a row.

Bottas finished 2019 second with 326 points to Hamilton's 413. In 2020 he took pole and won the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, leading from start to finish. He won again at Russia, where penalties for Hamilton gave him the ninth victory of his career. He finished second with 223 points to Hamilton's 347.

Why was 2018 such a difficult year for Bottas?

In 2018 Bottas ended the year fifth on 247 points, without a win. He finished second seven times, a record for a season without a victory. He was the first Mercedes driver since Michael Schumacher in 2012 to finish a season with no victory.

Mercedes ordered him to hold position behind Hamilton at the German Grand Prix. Team principal Toto Wolff praised his defence against the Ferraris with a description that Bottas found hurtful. He later said he had lost the joy of Formula One and nearly retired at the end of the year.

How did Bottas's final season at Mercedes end?

In 2021 Bottas finished third in the championship with 226 points. His only win of the year came at the Turkish Grand Prix, where he passed Charles Leclerc for the lead after a pit stop. He also took pole at Mexico City, although a slow start dropped him to the back, and he finished on the podium at the first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The season was his last at Mercedes. In September 2021 the team announced that George Russell would replace him. Bottas said he wanted to know he had made the most of the opportunity, and he described working with Hamilton as a privilege and a great sporting challenge.

What happened in the Alfa Romeo and Sauber years?

Bottas joined Alfa Romeo in 2022 alongside the rookie Zhou Guanyu. He finished tenth in the championship with 49 points, and the team placed sixth among the constructors, its best result since 2012. In 2023 he scored ten points and finished 15th.

The Sauber years went downhill. In 2024, when the team became Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, Bottas scored no points. In 2025 he finished 22nd, the first season in his career without a point. He later described the 2022 move as a mistake.

What was Bottas's 2026 season with Cadillac like?

Cadillac announced in August 2025 that Bottas had signed for its debut 2026 season alongside Sergio Perez. At the Australian Grand Prix he qualified 19th, the last of the drivers who set a time, and retired with a mechanical issue. He finished 13th in China and 19th in Japan, and he was 18th in Miami.

The European races were harder. He retired from Monaco with brake problems, from Barcelona with overheating, and from the Austrian Grand Prix when his brakes caught fire on the second lap. Hungary brought more brake problems, and a hydraulic fault affecting the rear wing ended his race at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Where else has Bottas raced?

Bottas has rallied as well. In January 2019 he took a stage win at the Arctic Rally and finished fifth overall, and in December 2019 he won at the Rallycircuit Cote d'Azur. In 2020 he drove a Citroen DS3 WRC to ninth at the Arctic Lapland Rally, and in 2021 he finished sixth overall there with a class podium.

In 2023 he represented Finland at the Race of Champions alongside Hakkinen in the Nations Cup, where they were knocked out by the Team eROC pair. He had been due to make his debut at the 2022 event but dropped out at the last minute.

What business and charity work has Bottas done?

Bottas bought a 10 percent stake in the Lahti Pelicans ice hockey team in March 2021, and he co-owns Kahiwa Coffee Roasters in Lahti. In April 2022 he launched Oath, a premium gin. He also runs the annual Valtteri Bottas Duathlon, which he launched in 2017 and which raises money for charity.

Gravel cycling is another interest. He co-founded FNLD GRVL, a gravel event in Lahti, and in 2024 he finished 134th of 233 entries in the men's 35 to 39 age category at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium. A calendar he worked on in 2023 raised $150,000 for Movember.

How do Bottas's career numbers compare?

His Formula One totals are ten wins, 20 poles, 19 fastest laps and 67 podiums. He has the second-most career points without a World Drivers' Championship, with 1,797. His best championship finishes were the runner-up places of 2019 and 2020.

How is Bottas remembered?

Bottas is remembered as a consistent frontrunner who came back from a difficult 2018 season. His 2017 Russian Grand Prix win came in his first year with Mercedes, and his two runner-up championships remain the high points of his career so far.

His honours include the Sky Sports Award for Most Improved Driver in 2014, the DHL Fastest Lap Award and the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy in 2018, and driver of the year awards from Confartigianato in 2017 and AKK-Motorsport in 2019.