It can’t be easy to play Lewis’ teammate role Hamilton. We must have been exposed to media pressure and also to the involuntary pressure of the British himself. Who does his job on the track, and if he does it right it’s pains for anyone. Valtteri Bottas lived these sensations for five years: eternal second, eternal beaten, psychologically defeated before on the track. Now the Woodman he is ready to leave again, proud of what he has learned from such a champion.
“When I arrived in the Mercedes the atmosphere was very different than it is now, there were two drivers who were fighting very hard on and off the track. And then it became a question of ‘politics’. Bringing back the good mood in the team was an important thing, it helped us in the development: with me Lewis was back to sharing data“, Said the Finn in the podcast made for Supla. “In the early years, however, it really bothered me that I couldn’t beat him in the championship. However, we’ve always had a good and respectful relationship, with just the right amount of tension. I have to say that in the last two years I have spent a lot more time with him, we have also seen each other beyond the races, and now he is definitely a friend. When we started working together, he pulled me aside and told me he didn’t want to play any mind games (Lewis came from the experience of Nico Rosberg, very skilled in taking away the title from him in 2016, putting him in crisis from a psychological point of view, ed). I replied that I didn’t want them either: the best had to win“.
Bottas then analyzed one of the differences between him and Hamilton (beyond the talent available): “He rarely has bad races, he adapts very well to any situation. I also work very hard with the team, I study everything precisely, but if Lewis saw that I was in the factory for two days, then he would go there for three days. If he feels insecure about something, he does something to gain certainty. In 2021 he was on the simulator almost every week: it had never happened before. Faced with the amount of effort it takes, we should all take off our hats. F1 matters a lot to him, perhaps more than any other driver. He has that fire inside that allows him to always have results“.
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