Why ruthless 'new Bottas' is a real title threat
A dominant drive and a very blunt message to his critics - Valtteri Bottas began the 2019 Formula 1 season as a very different character to the battered, confidence-ravaged figure he had been going into the winter.
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The Valtteri Bottas who defiantly told persons unknown where to go after his dominant victory in the Australian Grand Prix was very different to the meeker character who admitted he simply wanted a chastening season over in Abu Dhabi last November.
Only he will really know what he did in the intervening months to rebuild, regroup and regenerate himself, but its effectiveness was undeniable. Bottas’s Albert Park performance was not one of a dead man walking at Mercedes, but one who had to send a message that he wasn’t going to relinquish a place with the best team in grand prix racing without a fight.
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