Valtteri Bottas reflects on F1 career “highlight” that still gives him “goosebumps”

Valtteri Bottas says his win at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix remains the “highlight” of his Formula 1 career that still gives him “goosebumps”.

The Finn was signed by Mercedes following three years with Williams to replace Nico Rosberg, who announced a shock retirement from F1 after wrapping up the 2016 world title.

Bottas, managed by Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff at the time, scored three wins in an impressive first season as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate in 2017.

But he followed this up with a winless 2018 campaign as Hamilton eased to another title, leaving Bottas under pressure for the start of the 2019 season.

“I had probably my most difficult year with Mercedes the year before, so I actually had quite a bit of frustration [inside me],” Bottas told formula1.com.

“In 2018, I wasn’t able to win a single race. I did have multiple podiums and some good results, but the wins never happened.

“I really wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to happen again.

“I wanted to, let’s say, come back with a big boom, and in the end I felt like that’s exactly what happened in 2019, which happened to be my best year so far in F1.”

Bottas began the 2019 season by narrowly missing out on pole to Hamilton in Australia, but seized the lead off the line and put in a commanding performance.

At the chequered flag, Bottas was 20.886 seconds clear of Hamilton to secure a fourth F1 victory.

Such was the emotion of that triumph, a usually cool Bottas said over the radio on the lap back to the pits: “To whom it may concern, f**k you…”

“The beginning of the weekend was all quite normal,” current Sauber driver Bottas added.

“In qualifying, Lewis did happen to have an upper hand, but not by a big margin.

“In the race itself, I managed to get a better start and get into the lead. From Turn 1 until the end of the race I was in the lead. I won by being able to control it and in the end pulled a big gap.

“As a driver, as an athlete, you’re always searching for this flow state, [where] you feel like you’re in full control.

“Everything almost slows down, it almost feels like everything is easy, you have time to react, you have time to think, and the whole race was like that.

“I would say sometimes you might get that perfect feeling in qualifying, sometimes in the whole race, but yeah, unfortunately, I would say it’s probably less than 20% of your qualifyings or races that you get to your absolute peak in terms of your mental performance.

“It was an amazing feeling and I still get goosebumps. I just really felt like that was my highlight so far, in terms of my own performance.”

That result acted as a springboard to Bottas’ best season in F1.

He won three more times that year and only finished outside of the top five once - at Hungary, where he was eighth.

He ended the campaign second on 326 points, though this was 87 shy of world champion Hamilton.

At the 2024 summer break, Bottas sits last in the championship amid a miserable season for Sauber that has seen neither driver score points.