F1: Valtteri Bottas’s form is getting better – beating Sergio Perez three times in a row

Just Bottas and his teammates Sergio Perez and Aston Martin Lance Stroll have no points this season.

The situation is not a surprise. Cadillac is the first entry team in the F1 series in a decade, and the team’s growing pains have been significant. As expected, it has the slowest car in the series, its only competitor is Aston Martin, which failed to design its car, and has a power source that has proven to be weak from Honda.

The most significant measure of the success of Bottas’ season is his qualifying and race speed in relation to his teammate Perez. Neither of them can dream of World Championship points this season, unless they see an exceptional number of dropouts in a single race.

In May-June, Perez started to consistently beat Bottas in qualifying, and at the beginning of the summer, the international media speculated about replacing Bottas after the season or even in the middle of the season.

Cadillac washed the star of the American Indycar series for this season Colton Hertan to drive the F2 series and reportedly would like him to be a homegrown leading star for his F1 team. However, Herta has been quiet in F2.

Finnish stocks are rising right now. In the last races of the summer before the summer break of the series, Bottas significantly reversed the pace trend against Perez.

Perez beat Bottas in no less than four qualifying sessions in a row (Canada, Monaco, Spain, Austria), and at worst the difference was well over half a second.

At Silverstone during the British GP weekend, Bottas reversed course. He beat Perez at Silverstone by 0.224 seconds and was also quicker at Spa in Belgium.

In Hungary last weekend, Bottas hit Perez with a bone in the throat. He was almost half a second faster in qualifying.

At the same time, talk about replacing Bottas has died down considerably in the international media. Speed ​​in qualifying is the most significant single measure in the competition between teammates, because the unpredictable variables of the races make it more difficult to compare the direct result or the fastest race laps.

On a general level, the Mexican has been more often a winger than the Finn in terms of race pace over the course of the season, but even in that regard, the trend has started to turn in the Nastolan’s favor. Also in the race, the Finn’s speed was better in both Hungary and Belgium before the interruptions.

Both the racing driver’s performance is watered down by Cadillac’s weak car. Of course, it was already clear before the start of the season that nothing can be expected from the F1 team, which was built from scratch in a little over a year, in its debut season, but to screw around with the tails of the hose. However, expectations were raised by the promising performances of the early season.

Even at the beginning of the summer, it seemed that the American team might, with its summer updates, rise up to challenge the teams at the rear end of the series and, when the opportunity arises, pick up random points. However, the stable has suffered from constant childhood illnesses, technical problems and other troubles.

Monaco was the team’s best moment. Perez finished in 10th place, but the points scorer changed to disappointment due to a time penalty imposed after the race. Perez therefore dropped out of the points.

The bigger problem is that Cadillac’s extensive upgrade package that debuted in Austria flopped badly. The Yankee team has not found significant performance in relation to its competitors, and especially Aston Martin, which is stuck at the tail, has developed significantly at the same time.

Aston Martin brought an exceptionally extensive upgrade package to the Hungarian race, improving the performance of its abysmal passing game by up to 1.5-2 seconds per lap. At the same time, Aston left the Cadillacs behind and competed with each other.

Cadillac’s biggest complaint during the summer has been the constant overheating of the brakes. The team thought they had fixed the problem with the update they brought to Hungary, but it turned out differently. Both drivers stopped when the brakes caught fire.

It was the team’s second double suspension for technical reasons in four race weekends.

“Tulokasta has to go through these kinds of problems,” Perez summed up to the international media after the race.

So far Cadillac has not told about the big update packages that would be coming to the car shortly after the summer break.

Aston will get an updated Honda engine for the first race after the break in Holland, and it will probably put the team’s car more firmly in the middle of the series.

In this case, Bottas and Perez will be left to circle the track within two inches, probably for the rest of the season – as they predicted earlier in the season.

The F1 series continues at the Zandvoort circuit on August 23.

Story edited on 28.7. at 8:06 p.m.: Corrected the table with more accurate victory figures for Perez.

The matter was corrected on 29.7. at 3:11 p.m.: Bottas is using a regular kickboard in the photo, not an electric scooter.