Formula One: How Valtteri Bottas rediscovered himself and why Ferrari need to do the same

There is a weight of evidence that suggests Ferrari will recover, but even if it doesn't, the emergence of a more aggressive Valtteri Bottas this year has the potential to keep things interesting.Again, it's too early to draw conclusions, but if Bottas can continue to drive on the level we saw in Australia, he will be a genuine threat to Lewis Hamilton's title defence.

For everyone else it was easy to write him off. A nice guy, no doubt about it, but one destined to finish last as long as he was in a head-to-head battle with Hamilton.In the three-and-a-half-month break between the last race of 2018 and the first race of 2019, Bottas had no way of changing that perception - no means with which he could prove to the world that wasn't the case.

It was one of those rare occasions in a driver's career when he looks unbeatable against the 19 most talented drivers in the world. Such was Bottas' dominance that he had enough of a gap over Hamilton to consider making another pit stop for fresh tyres - something he suggested in order to ensure he took the extra point on offer for fastest lap.

"Since I started to work with drivers 15 years ago, I try to comprehend what is going on in their brains and I can't," Wolff added after the race. There is a long way to go for Bottas and one win in Melbourne guarantees nothing for the coming season. But for a driver who is out of contract next year and under intense pressure to perform with Esteban Ocon waiting in the wings as a potential replacement, a strong start to the season was essential.

"It was the perfect start of the year, very different from last year, so I just need to keep it up and build from what we've learned."It's easy to look at Sunday's result and assume Ferrari spent all of pre-season showboating while Mercedes was sandbagging. But based on everything we know about the 2019 season, the pace in Melbourne is still more likely to be the anomaly rather than the reality.

"I think the whole weekend summing up, I didn't get that confidence that I had in Barcelona, so I didn't have the car underneath to play around. It wasn't doing what I was asking. But by testing at a single venue, you are also limiting the variables. The ambient temperature in Melbourne was 10 to 15 degrees higher than Barcelona two weeks ago, and that's the kind of difference that can shift a set of tyres out of their operating window.

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