Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has described Valtteri Bottas’ race-winning start to 2019 as a fairy-tale, in the wake of his driver’s struggles through last year’s Formula 1 campaign.
Bottas failed to win a race through 2018 and slumped to fifth in the standings, openly accepting that it was the worst year of his motorsport career.
The Finn vowed to return stronger for 2019 and, having qualified on the front row of the grid, grabbed the lead of the Australian Grand Prix at the start from Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
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He controlled the 58-lap Grand Prix and ultimately crossed the line over 20 seconds clear of Hamilton, capping a fine start to the year by collecting the bonus point for fastest lap.
“Since I started to work with drivers 15 years ago, I try to comprehend what is going on in their brains and I don’t,” said Wolff.
“How he recovered from being written off, not up for the job in the second half of the season last year to scoring one of the most dominant victories that we’ve seen in recent days shows us that human potential, how much it is a mind game.
“For me, it’s a bit of a fairy-tale: don’t let others break you, believe in yourself and he has shown that the whole weekend, not one single session that he wasn’t good enough.
“When he left, after the Christmas party, he said he was tired and he needed to recover because it was the most shitty half of the season he has ever had, and he came back end of January and said: I’m back.”
Wolff was involved in the management of Bottas’ career from his early single-seater days through to his Formula 1 career and believes the off-season break has rejuvenated the 29-year-old.
“In 2008, I got a call from a young boy who asked for a meeting,” he said.
“It was a snowy day in Vienna, and this young Finnish boy came in with a pullover, no jacket, and asked for advice.
“He went on to dominate the Formula Renault Eurocup, he almost lapped the whole field, this is the Valtteri Bottas that I have seen [in Australia]. It was in him.
“I think that maybe these years at Williams, and then the shock draft into Mercedes was something that he needed to digest.
“He went off tired at the end of the season and came back and the 2008 young man came back. I’m very happy and he deserves it.”
