The traditional disadvantage of picking a top ten in December is that the events from the first three or four months of the season you’re analyzing are so remote in your memory you tend to forget them. That’s why Bottas won’t feature in many top ten lists you will be reading this year, because his outstanding start of the season for Alfa Romeo happened so many months ago that it has been forgotten. With Alfa Romeo being slow at bringing upgrades to his car, Bottas started to drop down the order and, naturally, his motivation faded – for a few months before he’d been driving a winning car – allowing rookie Zhou Guanyu to beat him in a number of occasions.

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