Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Hockenheimring, 2019

Bottas explains why he stopped simracing

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas, who simraced earlier in his motorsport career, explains why he stopped.

What they say

Bottas was asked whether he still simraces, as rivals such as Lando Norris and Max Verstappen do:

I’m sure with a simulator nowadays, especially the simulators that Formula 1 teams have, it can be a big benefit. Gaming, obviously I have no experience of the current games that well.

I used to do a lot when I was younger – the age of the youngest drivers now, I used to drive a lot at home. At some point it just wasn’t that interesting any more. I love driving but I love much more driving in real life, feeling the speed, feeling the G-forces.

[I’m] not a big fan of gaming. But simulator, for sure, you can pick up some things and there’s also a big benefit for the team, obviously. And it can be nowadays for the drivers.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

Congratulations to Philip for winning this weekend’s Caption Competition:

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Hungaroring, 2019

The Ferrari is a fundamentally good umbrella, it’s just lacking downpours
Philip (@philipgb)

Thanks to everyone who joined, and also to Todfod, Derek Edwards, Euro Brun and JungleMartin who also came up with great captions.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Victor!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

  • 40 years ago today Gilles Villeneuve famously lapped Zandvoort on three wheels after a tyre failed while he was leading. Alan Jonestook the win while Jody Scheckter closed on the championship by racing from 19th to second

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

15 comments on “Bottas explains why he stopped simracing”

  1. I understood what Symonds said, but I am still mystified by how much resources went into front/rear wings with no clear benefit for racing in F1.

    1. because they add performance which is what F1 & the sport in general is supposed to be about. finding performance, going as fast as possible and producing a technical challenge.

      The focus on racing is a relatively new thing. If you go back 20-30+ years how close cars could run, how many overtakes happened & all these other metrics that people use to judge the quality of a series now were never considered & were all things people didn’t really care all that much about and to be honest are still things i don’t really care that much about. i’m all about the performance, challenge & technical side of things because that is the f1 & the sport overall that i got hooked to as a kid in the late 1960s.

      As far as i’m concerned the push for ‘the show’ the past 20 odd years has done nothing but water down the sport and stripped away much of what used to make it as exciting & interesting as it used to be. i don’t even think you can even really call it a sport anymore with some of the show gimmicks it has and how entertainment focussed it has become for the low attention span instant gratification tv and now social media generation.

    2. Pretty easy to understand that a rear wing eases drafting but it will also contribute to aero wake. Make the wings smaller.

  2. Congrats, Phillip! Your winning caption drenched me in chuckles. May it reign for at least a day.

  3. Perfect caption, @philipgb

  4. Interesting info, I wasn’t aware of that before that he had done some sim-racing in what is now a quite distant past.

  5. Jose Lopes da Silva
    26th August 2019, 10:33

    Looking at his, Max’s and Lando’s results, looks like one should really engage in simracing.

    1. I think there’s more to this comment than a simple dig at Bottas.

    2. Agree. The way Max knew dicing from day one was not just by instinct. He has tons of practice wheel to wheel.

  6. Ferrari surprised by Leclerc’s rate of improvement (Autosport)

    “Race after race, his weekend is becoming more solid and solid, and I think he can even do better than what’s he’s doing.”

    Looking at the many serious driver mistakes he makes this season it seems a very tinted observation.
    Baku, Monaco, Germany all his own fault.
    His learning curve will improve i guess but this observation by Ferrari is a bit to positive.
    But lets hope he will find his rhythm soon and start fighting for wins.

    1. But does he make the same mistake twice?

      And if you want mistakes, consider his teammate.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        26th August 2019, 18:55

        Vettel has had 0 retirements vs 2 for Leclerc. And in one way Leclerc has gone backwards from his first season. That year he didn’t crash out in any race over the whole season. Only half the season has passed now and he’s crashed out twice and made a pretty costly mistake in qualifying too. I think Leclerc is making the biggest mistakes of the two team mates this year.

  7. Good to see Supercars featured here. Big fan!

  8. On the subject of wings, I was surprised to see that the 2021 test model still shows the car has a large and complex front wing. Looking at the old ground effect cars from the 1980s they hardly had any front wing.

    Why therefore do the new cars require such a large and complex wing. I would have though it would simpler in design at least.

  9. Joakim Järnström
    27th August 2019, 15:51

    According to a Finnish newspaper (Turun Sanomat, usually reliable) Bottas and Mercedes have already signed a 1 + 1 year deal.

Comments are closed.