F1 | Mercedes with only one string to its bow: a mistake to keep Bottas

In this real chess game that is the 2021 World Championship, Mercedes may have made a fatal mistake in moving its pieces. The gratitude and habit with which she without much reflection renewed Valtteri Bottas' contract for 2021 could have condemned her to play out numerically inferior against Red Bull.

Despite three podiums in six rounds, Valtteri Bottas no longer seems like the brilliant and solid driver admired in the early years of his experience at Brackley. In the Finn - who in recent years, despite ups and downs, has represented the perfect prototype of the squire, "escorting" Hamilton to the victory of the world championships without too many worries - that light that already greatly weakened in 2020 seems to have definitively gone out.

Years of defeats, years of vain attempts to match the performances of his fellow champion, seem to have profoundly undermined Valtteri's confidence. The Scandinavian from Mercedes, while remaining competitive on the flying lap, complains of increasing difficulty in maximizing the potential of the car in the race. Bottas has no feeling with the W12, he can't drive it, and over distances he can't make a difference.

In these races he has never managed to put his wheels in front of those of Max Verstappen, unlike his counterpart Sergio Perez who "worked" impeccably for his teammate in Baku, sending Hamilton to the asylum and creating that 2 against 1 much sought after and desired by Red Bull.

In such a balanced world championship, Mercedes will have to work twice as hard to win, given that sic stantibus rebus he will hardly be able to rely on Bottas. Which is always a step backwards, unmotivated, without consistency and rhythm. Not listless, because it would be an insult to a driver who has always stood out for his great professionalism, but certainly "burdened" by an environment in which he is no longer at ease, having now reached the closing credits of this adventure of his.

If Toto Wolff had had courage, he would have noticed already from the Sakhir race in 2020 how significantly Bottas was in difficulty from a mental point of view, outclassed in the race by the overwhelming talent of George Russell. The decline of the Finn is not a new situation in F1, after all it recalls the end of the story between Vettel and Ferrari, albeit with due proportions. Sebastian also seemed like a driver in deep crisis, because he was no longer at ease in Maranello either mentally or technically, and look at how much enamel and speed he has recovered in Aston Martin, regenerating himself in a new environment.

Mercedes, by confirming a driver who no longer has any motivation and who has "resigned", already condemned to give up his seat to Russell, has precluded the double possibility of launching his great talent a year earlier and of racing with two frontrunners against Red Bull. Because Russell, probably, more than Hamilton, could have given the right annoyance to Verstappen himself, who instead finds in Bottas an opponent who is far too fragile and harmless, now devoid of enthusiasm.

Antonino Rendina

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