Why the 2024 campaign is suddenly critical for one F1 stalwart

OPINION: Lewis Hamilton’s decision to join Ferrari has lit up a Formula 1 driver market that had appeared to be stalling amongst the top teams as 2024 commenced, all while looking forward to 2025. And it’s made things trickier for one driver with which he shares much…

There’s an exclusive club inside the current Formula 1 driving crop. Just three of their number can boast an unbroken run of continuous employment in the championship stretching back over a decade. And, when the various 2020 COVID-19 absences are factored in for Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez, membership of this group slims down to just one: Valtteri Bottas.

The Finnish driver is about to embark on his 12th F1 campaign, having started off with Williams in 2013. Since then, 223 races have been held, with Bottas’s only missing start being the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, where the now 34-year-old withdrew due to a back injury sustained in a qualifying crash (he still qualified sixth, which keeps that unbroken streak going).

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.