F1: The Windsor Journals - Valtteri Bottas

Formula 1

F1: The Windsor Journals - Valtteri Bottas

The Windsor Journals: SPEED.com’s Peter Windsor chats with Valtteri Bottas about his debut at Williams...

Peter Windsor | Posted February 13, 2012 London (GBR)

Valtteri Bottas will make his full public F1 debut as Williams Third Driver in Barcelona next week - and although this event in itself will not change the face of the F1 world as we know it, many behind the scenes, including the 1998-99 F1 World Champion, Mika Hakkinen, see the arrival of Bottas as heralding the next chapter in Finland's glorious F1 history. A child prodigy who began racing karts at the age of six, Valtteri displays all the hallmarks of a driver who will emulate the great Finnish Champions - Keijo ("Keke") Rosberg, Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen. With Formula Renault Eurocup and GP3 championship wins behind him, Bottas should by rights be racing this year in either GP2 or World Series by Renault. Instead, dovetailing with the new, ultra-restrictive F1 test regulations, he will focus 100 per cent on preparing to race in F1 in 2013. He will drive no fewer than 15 Friday morning F1 sessions at GP weekends for Williams and will also test at Barcelona and Mugello. So what will life be like in 2012 for the 22-year-old? How frustrating will it be for him not to race? And how ready will he be to race in 2013? We talked about all this and more with Bottas, an extraordinary talent who is managed by Hakkinen, Williams shareholder, Toto Wolff, and Didier Coton - the Frenchman who recently also joined the management team of Lewis Hamilton.

Peter Windsor has worked for SPEED since 1999. The winner of five major writing awards in an F1 career that began in 1972, Windsor was Team Manager of the Championship-winning Williams-Renault F1 team in 1992 and General Manager of Ferrari in the Prost-Mansell era. He currently hosts the online, weekly F1 TV show TheFlyingLap.com and also writes for Autosport Japan. Follow him @peterdwindsor and on www.facebook.com/theflyinglap

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Peter Windsor

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