M-Sport has faith in Bottas, performance to depend on conditions
World Rally Championship team M-Sport says Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas can shine on his rallying debut, providing the conditions are right at next month's Arctic Lapland Rally
Bottas will contest the January 24-26 event in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta World Rally Car and will test for two days close to the rally's Rovaniemi base in Finland.
M-Sport's deputy team principal Rich Millener said Bottas has the chance to impress if perfect winter conditions prevail in the Arctic Circle.
"Consistent conditions would really help," said Millener.
"Ideally there will be a lot of snow, big snowbanks and lots of good, hard ice on the road.
"If he gets those conditions, he'll find the grip's at a really high level and he'll learn quickly.
"If it's a bit warmer and he starts to lose some studs from the tyres because there's gravel coming through the ice, then it could be tough."
Bottas will be co-driven by Timo Rautiainen, who navigated Marcus Gronholm to the 2000 and '02 WRC crowns.
Millener said it would be easy for Bottas to be tripped up by having to work with a co-driver.
"What will be tough for him, and we've seen this with the likes of [F1 drivers Kimi] Raikkonen and Robert [Kubica], is learning pacenotes," added Millener.
"But he's got Timo there to help him, he should be fine.
"He's a very, very capable driver - we can see that from what he does in a Formula 1 car and some of those skills will transfer over.
"He's not going to be afraid of the speed and he doesn't need to learn how to drive a car."
Bottas will follow in the footsteps of Finnish F1 drivers including Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen in tackling the Arctic Lapland Rally.
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Top Comments
The outrageous mountain-climbers that became Pikes Peak legends
Ranking lost WRC legend Richard Burns' 10 best rallies
What to expect from the WRC's venture to the Arctic
DJR completes Davison car rebuild after heavy Bathurst qualifying crash
The defining moments of Williams boss Vowles’ rollercoaster season
Podcast: The Best of Super Touring Power 2 - Ray Mallock, John Cleland and Laurent Aiello
Solberg's failed Rally Chile protest to be reheard by stewards
When a generation of drivers learned skills for life from an atypical academy scheme
The enduring power of Prodrive at 40
Inside the archive that keeps motorsport’s most closely-guarded secrets
The choppy waters McLaren has navigated behind the scenes of its F1 success
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
