October 8 2024
By Yeonghun(Harry) Song
As the contract renewal season has come back, many F1 fans have been focusing on the seats for the drivers. Scuderia Ferrari HP took Lewis Hamilton away from Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS. Lewis Hamilton is a 7-time world champion veteran driver. It is known that Ferrari took him to compete with Oracle Red Bull Racing. Max Verstappen from Red Bull has been the world champion for the last 3 consecutive seasons.
Unlike how other drivers have secured their seats or moved to a different F1 machine, Valtteri Bottas has been quiet. He is one of the most experienced drivers in the competition. However, his team—Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber—has been producing very slow machines resulting in him being 22nd on the table. Consequently, he wants a higher salary. Mattia Binotto, the new CEO, said he would like to keep the work faster. For Binotto, Valtteri Bottas is a big obstacle stopping his pace.
Experts and F1 fans are worried that they will not see Bottas next season, or even worse: the next race. Despite all the tension between him and the team, Bottas is participating in the Gravel World Championship held in Belgium this week. It is always interesting for F1 fans to watch the staring contest between a new CEO and an old driver.