Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas is a 10-time grand prix winner and one of the most experienced drivers of his era, a Finn whose calm precision and speed have kept him on the grid since 2013. In 2026 he drives car number 77 for the Cadillac F1 Team and, as the season stands, sits P22 without a point.

From Nastola to the grid

Born in Nastola in 1989, Bottas came through Europe’s single-seater ladder with a measured reputation for speed and tidiness. He won the 2011 GP3 Series title and spent 2012 embedded at Williams, appearing in multiple Friday practice sessions as reserve. Williams promoted him to a race seat for 2013, when he scored four points and finished P17 overall.

Breakthrough at Williams

The breakthrough came in 2014 as Williams surged back to the front group with its Mercedes-powered package. Bottas took a string of podiums, finished P4 in the championship with 186 points and put himself on the radar of the biggest teams. He followed that with P5 in 2015 and P8 in 2016.

Winning with Mercedes

Bottas stepped into the most scrutinised seat on the grid in 2017, joining Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton after Nico Rosberg’s sudden retirement. He delivered immediately, taking his first Formula 1 victory in Russia and ending the year P3 with three wins. In 2018 he endured a winless campaign despite strong pace, ultimately classified P5 with 247 points, but remained a trusted part of Mercedes’ title-winning machine.

The response came in 2019. Bottas won four grands prix, led the championship early on and finished P2 with 326 points, the best season total of his career. He was runner-up again in 2020 with two victories in a condensed calendar. In 2021 he signed off his Mercedes stint with P3 in the standings and one win, closing a five-year spell that yielded 10 career victories in total and established him as a proven race winner at the sharp end.

Leading roles outside the top team

For 2022 Bottas moved to the Sauber-run operation racing as Alfa Romeo. He started the era strongly enough to finish P10 with 49 points. The next season was tougher: P15 in 2023 with 10 points reflected a slide down the midfield.

The decline continued in 2024, when Bottas ended the year P22 without a point.

Cadillac and the present day

Bottas switched to the Cadillac F1 Team for 2026, taking his race number 77 into a new environment. As the current standings show, he is yet to score and sits P22.

Across a career that has spanned Williams, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo and now Cadillac, Bottas has shown he can thrive in very different contexts: as a points-gatherer in an overachieving midfield car, as a multiple winner in a dominant team, and as an anchor figure during rebuilds. The headline numbers from the championship table tell the story cleanly: P4 in 2014 announced his arrival, P2 in 2019 and 2020 confirmed his class at the front, and the leaner years since 2022 reflect the competitive reality of the midfield. At 37, with a decade-and-a-half of grand prix experience behind him and 10 wins on his record, he remains a respected fixture of the grid in 2026.

Valtteri Bottas is 37 years old, was born in Nastola, Finland and first entered Formula 1 in 2013. The Finnish driver races for Cadillac F1 Team under number 77.