Move over Kimi, Bottas is F1's top Finn

On the day Kimi Raikkonen clinched the world championship in Brazil - October 21, 2007 - 18-year-old Valtteri Bottas notched up his first victories in single-seater racing racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup at Hockenheim.

During the intervening years, it became increasingly obvious that Bottas would eventually succeed Raikkonen as F1's resident flying Finn.

Perhaps the early seconds of the British Grand Prix, when Raikkonen was on his way to a 47G meeting with the wall on the Wellington Straight and Bottas was jumping from 14th to ninth to lay the foundations for a career-best second place, was the moment the baton was passed from one to the other?

That's not to say Bottas has come close to matching Raikkonen's achievements yet. A couple of podium finishes don't stand comparison with the world championship and 20 victories of the more experienced Finn, who has been one of the leading drivers of the 21st century. But this is about 2014 and so far Bottas has been one of the stars of the season while Raikkonen has underwhelmed.

And we have more than just a sample set of nine races to suggest Bottas is a special talent. Those who wrote him off as just another over-hyped rookie last year disregarded the fact that, when you are in as uncompetitive a car as the 2013 Williams was, you have to look a little more closely to recognise the quality of performance.

In 2012, Bottas convinced Williams that he had to be promoted to a race seat with his regular Friday practice outings. There was a feeling inside the team that he was the fastest of the drivers Williams had on its books, including those occupying the race seats, and he justified that opinion by outqualifying team-mate Pastor Maldonado more often than not last year.

Bottas, like Williams, had a tough 2013 © LAT

Aside from his third on the grid in the wet in Canada and eighth place in the USA, his rookie season was unobtrusive. But that's not to say it wasn't impressive - so much so that in my end of season top 10 drivers, he was ranked just one place below a certain Mr Raikkonen.

It goes without saying that he is fast. But what really impresses about Bottas is his mindset. He is a driver that learns and adapts extremely well, a quality that is not as common as it should be among F1 racers.

"His racecraft is phenomenal and he is super quick," said Williams head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley after the British GP. "The good thing about Valtteri is he's a young lad with his feet absolutely on the ground, he is not spoiled in any shape or form.

"He is able to accept advice very readily not only about the basics but also about his racecraft and how he communicates with us. Today, the communication between him and the pitwall was exceptional."

His attitude has continually impressed the team. Last year, there where times when Maldonado was not felt to be offering the most constructive feedback, whereas Bottas was careful not to let frustration at an uncompetitive car compromise his approach.

This was a lesson of earlier in his career. In 2010, after being initially picked up by Williams he was in his second season of Formula 3 Euro Series with the crack ART squad. A title bid was expected following a rookie campaign during which he was increasingly able to trouble champion Jules Bianchi, and in which he dominated rookie team-mate Esteban Gutierrez.

For the previous six seasons, ART (initially under the ASM banner) had dominated F3, winning the title with future stars like Lewis Hamilton, Romain Grosjean, Nico Hulkenberg and Bianchi. But the team found things tougher in 2010 as the VW-powered Signature squad gained ascendancy.

Early on, there were too many errors as Bottas struggled to come to terms with being at a disadvantage. Crucially, he emerged as a more complete package in the second half of the year once he accepted the title had slipped away.

"I think we were always a little bit behind with the engines, and that made me try too much sometimes and make some mistakes," he admitted at the end of the season. "It was quite disappointing - the goal was to win the championship."

He finished third overall and the following season learned the value of hard work as he played a key role in turning ART into the strongest GP3 squad after a difficult start to the campaign. That year, he won the title even though, in the early stages when the car was difficult, he wasn't quite as strong as team-mate James Calado.

Bottas took the GP3 title before jumping to F1 © LAT

These are the things that make the difference between drivers who are good and rack up an impressive junior CV, and genuine potential stars. Titles in Formula Renault 2.0 (the Eurocup and NEC) and GP3 are all well and good, but it's the way he went about winning them that truly marked him out as a driver on a trajectory to the top.

What we have seen this season, in a much stronger car, has continued to boost his stock. While he did make an error in the season-opener in Australia, hitting the wall while potentially on his way to second place and then recovering to claim fifth, other than that he has made no significant blunders.

He has scored points in eight out of nine races and has outscored team-mate Felipe Massa 73-30. In fairness, the Brazilian has had more than his fair share of bad luck and Bottas has not been as dominant as that statistic suggests, but he is unquestionably proving to be the more dependable of the two.

Williams also deserves its fair share of credit for this. Since picking him up ahead of the 2010 season, it has put him through the same development programme that Nico Hulkenberg went through. As well as testing opportunities and simulator work, that includes spending time at the factory seeing how things worked and even fulfilling some 'work experience' type tasks in various departments.

That gives him a strong connection with the team, not to mention the ability to recognise just how much work goes into putting his car on the grid by hundreds of people. This is another area where some drivers could learn a thing or two.

At the age of 24, and in only his second season, Bottas is still on an upward curve. He has the steel and the determination exhibited by the champions and while he still has to take the next step and prove he can win a grand prix, those in Williams have no doubt that, given the opportunity, he will do so.

As for his place as Finland's leading F1 driver, Bottas isn't particularly interested in comparisons with Raikkonen. If that kind of thing interested him, he probably wouldn't have emerged as the class act he has become.

But while there are still question marks over whether Raikkonen will emerge from his current travails at Ferrari and recapture the kind of form that he is clearly capable of, there are no such doubts over Bottas.

None of that is to be particularly negative about Raikkonen, who has been a phenomenal driver in F1 and enjoyed a remarkable career. But the fact that the improving Bottas has eclipsed him tells you exactly what the future might hold for the standard-bearer of Finland's next generation.

And he's only going to get better.