F1 2015 Head-to-Head: Valtteri Bottas vs. Felipe Massa at Williams
Just like the "Touch of Gray" hair colour guy, Williams may have found the ideal mix of experience and youthful energy with their driver pairing of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.
Massa came to Williams last season after eight years at Ferrari and immediately said he felt at home with the Grove-based team. "I feel happier because I'm having a great time," he told Crash.net's Chris Medland last September.
Bottas is entering his third Formula One season, but has already shown the speed of a future champion. He announced his potential with a brilliant qualifying performance on a wet Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve at the 2013 Canadian Grand Prix, and followed it up with six podium finishes and fourth in the drivers' championship in 2014.
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Although Bottas outscored Massa 186 to 134 last season, their relative performance was somewhat closer. Massa was ahead of Bottas in eight of the 14 races they both finished. However, Massa also seemed to be a magnet for other cars, and he was put out of four races in collisions with Kamui Kobayashi, Sergio Perez, Kimi Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen.
Massa also demonstrated that he is still capable of brilliant performances—something that had become rare from the Brazilian since his serious 2009 accident in Hungary. In Austria last year, he grabbed pole position, the only one all season that was not taken by Mercedes. Then, at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Massa nearly caught Lewis Hamilton for the victory as the Brit sought to preserve his car.
But despite Massa's pole, Bottas still has the edge in one-lap speed, out-qualifying the Brazilian 13 times in 19 races. Only Fernando Alonso had a better qualifying record against his team-mate.
For 2015, Massa's one big advantage—his experience—is starting to wane. He is 33 years old, with 210 grand prix starts and 11 victories on his record, but now Bottas, who is 25, has two full seasons and 39 grands prix of experience.
Still, Massa's experience developing cars will be key for Williams as they look to consolidate and increase the gains they made last season, jumping from ninth to third in the constructors' championship. Williams' ability to keep up in the development race on a limited budget (at least compared to the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull) will determine whether the team has truly made it back to the F1 elite, or whether they will fall back to the midfield.
At the same time, it cannot be overlooked that Massa has not been the same driver since the Hungaroring accident. Up to that point, he had won 11 of his 116 races and came within one lap of winning the 2008 world championship. He then missed the final eight races of 2009 while he recovered.
Since his return, he has no wins and 11 podiums in 96 races. In his last four years at Ferrari, his team-mate Alonso had 11 victories and 42 podium finishes.
Bottas is certainly the future at Williams, but Massa is not resigned to a No. 2 driver role. In an interview last year for the official F1 website, Massa was asked if he had given up his hope of winning a title. "Never," he responded. "When I do that I will stop being in Formula One. When you give up your hunger for success you are not racing full heartedly any more. Just to be there, that is not my style. I want to win races again."
If you had to pick one of the Williams drivers to snatch a victory from Mercedes in 2015, though, the smart money would be on Bottas.
Overall, the team firmly believes they are on the right track. Last November, deputy team principal Claire Williams told the official F1 site that, "from where we are now, 2015 should almost be a dress rehearsal for a championship challenge in 2016."
That is an ambitious goal, but no one would have predicted Williams to finish third last season, either.
A run like they achieved in the mid-1990s—five constructors' titles in six years—is unlikely to happen again, but after a difficult decade, the future is bright in Grove. With Bottas and Massa leading the way, what limits can be placed on Williams' potential?
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