As part of a daily series in the run-up to the start of pre-season, Motorsport Week brings you brief left-field reflections and stories of teams, drivers and reserve/test drivers that will be part of the Formula 1 paddock in 2019.
Williams held high hopes of improving in 2015, having been best-of-the rest during the first year of the hybrid era, during which youngster Valtteri Bottas had stood out with a sequence of fine performances.
But the season got off to a problematic start.
Bottas struggled with a back complaint during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix and, after setting the sixth-best time, had to be helped out of his FW37 at the conclusion of Q3.
Bottas spent the night in hospital as scans were carried out and medics determined that he had sustained a “very small tear in the annular part of a disc in his lower back”. Bottas tried to convince the FIA that he was fine to race but doctors declared him unfit on a precautionary ground, and he was forced to watch the season-opener from the team’s garage.
Fortunately for Bottas his absence was short-lived. He undertook work with his trainer and a specialist while his seat and pedal positions were tweaked in order to alleviate undue stress on certain muscles. Bottas returned to action for the following event in Malaysia and has not missed a race since.
