BUXTON: Under every Finn, there's a shark

With Formula 1's summer break entering its final days, thoughts begin to switch back to the world championship, the state of play when we entered our enforced recess, and the potential that lies in the second half of the season.

The first 11 races of 2017 have delivered in part. Ever since that first weekend in Australia, it looked clear that the season would grant us a fight that had been spoiling for the better part of a decade. Vettel versus Hamilton was the scrap everyone wanted to see, and with Mercedes and Ferrari genuinely and finally close in terms of outright pace, it was the fight that everyone not only expected but demanded of these new faster and more physical cars.

But while we've had moments of on-track excitement between the two, from Barcelona to Baku, we've not as yet been granted the multi-lap ding-dong between the drivers who have defined their generation. There's been no Dijon' 79, which of course is what so many believe should be the standard expectation of the sport despite the fact that we still, 38 years later, haven't quite got it figured out that those few laps of brilliance are the rare highlights which we laud and celebrate, rather than the norm.

Of course, the new cars haven't helped. Yes, they're faster, and yes, they're scintillating to watch on track in singular form as a driver attempts to hang onto the bull on a quali flyer, but they were not created for overtaking. DRS has proven itself nigh-on useless in helping this issue, because cars are finding it almost impossible to get within that pivotal one second. And so even in a scenario when we have the top four cars essentially nose to tail, as we had in Hungary (albeit with team orders imposed), the quality of racing we had hoped for simply hasn't shown up. Sadly, if you look back over the past 12 months of this column, this should come as no great surprise. But it is what it is.

What has proven to be a very nice surprise this season, however, has been the steady ascent of Valtteri Bottas, and as we enter this second half of 2017 it is in Mercedes' new charge that I hold the most hope for bringing an unexpected twist to the narrative we believed had been set in Australia. While the attention of the world has been on Vettel vs Hamilton, Bottas has been doing what Bottas does best. Calmly, quietly, methodically, he's been finding his footing and getting settled in, ready to stage an attack that nobody is expecting.

It struck me first in Silverstone. Valtteri had won in Austria: his second win of the season, and a race that came off the back of a frankly ridiculous drive in Baku, where he came home second after falling a lap down at the start. For the first time, his shoulders were back, his chest puffed out and he had a wry grin that he failed to contain in interviews. He was positively bouncing around the paddock.

I bumped into a former colleague from my GP2 days, who has been with what is now termed F2 and the GP3 series since their inception.

"Valtteri's back, isn't he?" he grinned.

"I really think he is," I replied.

"These guys don't know what's coming, do they?"

"Nope. Not one bit."

It was something I put to Valtteri after the British Grand Prix, which yielded another fine podium for the Finn. I told him I'd seen him like this before, that it reminded me of the Valtteri I'd first really got to know in GP3. He was back in his happy place, wasn't he?

He smiled. Again. And his answer told me everything I needed to know. He downplayed it, sure. But the answer was categorical. Yes. Yes, he was.

It's fascinating, but his year thus far in Formula 1 has many similarities with that 2011 season in GP3. Moving into the champion team, he had much to prove and little time to do it. GP3 was a one-year affair. Any longer, and you were toast. But the first half of his year was nothing at all special.

After the first half of the season he sat tenth in the standings, having scored points in just half the races held. He'd not DNF'd in any, but his form had been patchy. Yet it was precisely at that mid-season point that everything changed. He turned up at the Nurburgring and took his first podium on the Saturday in horrible weather, cementing his bounce into form with a win from sixth on the grid on Sunday. Next time out at the Hungaroring, he took his first pole of the season and turned it into his second win of the year. He blasted from eighth on the grid to second in Race 2. He won in Spa (above). He won in Monza.

He won the title by seven points from James Calado, overcoming a nine-point deficit to his British teammate at the season's mid-point and a 17 point gap to Alexander Sims, the overall leader, after eight of 16 races.

The point is that up until the mid-point of his last championship-winning season, none of his rivals had any real idea of what Valtteri Bottas was capable of producing in that car. He'd looked OK, but not mega. Which is why I believe his Formula 1 rivals would be wise to treat him as every bit the same competition for the world championship as a Vettel or a Hamilton. Because when Bottas gets into his stride, he's bloody hard to beat.

Nico Rosberg has said recently that he believes the Finn has the perfect mentality to win the title, and to be potentially the perfect driver. Quite how much of that he's been able to garner from his ice cream shop in Ibiza remains unclear, as his few short visits to the Mercedes garage in 2017 likely would have given him little insight into Bottas' development within the team. If it's second-hand information he's picked up from engineers and team bosses, then it shows in what high regard the Finn is held within the walls of Mercedes AMG Petronas. But one would be wise to apply some caution to these words, spoken as they were, we can be in little doubt, as an attempt to unsettle Lewis Hamilton – a cause celebre for the reigning champ.

Yet Rosberg wouldn't be the first to express this opinion, nor to believe that Valtteri Bottas is a serious proposition in 2017.

He's had low points, of course. His spin in China was foolish, but something he learnt from swiftly. Bahrain and his inability to keep pace with Hamilton, something which has haunted him more than once in race trim this season, threatened to thwart his upwards momentum. That he bounced back immediately to win in Russia showed much of his inner strength.

He's had misfortune too, in particular the engine failure in Spain which cost him an almost certain podium.

After Monaco, the last race on which he failed to reach the rostrum, Bottas had a 54-point deficit to championship leader Sebastian Vettel. Today that gap stands at 33 points, although at its lowest, post Silverstone, it was just 23. Factor in that engine failure in Spain (it's probable he would have finished second, but let's say he would have finished at minimum third behind Hamilton and Vettel) and we're looking at an 18 point gap, four in arrears of Hamilton. After just over half a season, some misfortune and a couple of bum races, to say he's keeping pace with his teammate would be an understatement.

And all this from a man thrust into the empty seat of a world champion, racing for the first time with a world champion team. New faces to know, new processes to learn, a new car to understand, bigger pressures to absorb, and the most fearsome challenge on the opposite side of the garage he's ever faced. One could forgive a driver for getting swamped by the enormity of it all.

And yet here he is. That wry grin impossible to hide. Back in his happy place. Confident. Assured. And ready.

Make no mistake. Valtteri Bottas isn't coming into the second half of 2017 to play back-up to Lewis Hamilton. When everyone asked the question of whether the Brit's act of handing back the podium spot to his teammate in Hungary might affect his title fight, almost everyone meant in relation to Vettel. Yet it may just be that, with the majority of circuits after the break looking to favour Mercedes, those three points have a deeper meaning in a battle far closer to home than anyone gave credence at the time.

There's a saying in racing. Under every Finn, there's a shark. This one just figured out how to swim. And he can smell blood.