JUST IN: Bottas on playing mind games with Lewis Hamilton

Valtteri Bottas claims that he won’t indulge in playing any mind games with Lewis Hamilton and will be focussed on his own strengths for the entirety of the 2018 F1 season.

Bottas feels that he is better off working on his own game rather than trying to exploit any weaknesses of Hamilton, who will in all probability be his main title rival this season.

“I just want to win as many races as I can and that way the championship, I don’t need to change anything else what I do,” said Bottas

“I’m not going to start for example playing any mental games or anything in the team, because I think like this it works well. It is up to me how I perform on track, and I’ll decide if I’ll show muscle when it’s needed.

“Every driver has weaknesses, that’s how it goes, but rather than focusing too much on him I’m going to spend my energy and focus on myself and my performance on track, and if I perform at the level that I’m aiming to every single race, I hope that will do the job.

“I’m not going to start waste my energy playing any games.” he added.

Bottas is confident of having analysed his game better during the off-season and feels that he has worked out a strategy that will help him not only iron out his weaknesses but also amplify his strengths better.

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“I’ve definitely been trying to focus a lot of my effort and time during December and January in the meetings I had with the team running through 2017, and especially regarding the races and conditions and the sessions where I didn’t perform on the level I should have,” he said.

“I’ve learned a lot from that. But also my average races, or good races, I still want to make them even better.

“I’m definitely focusing more on my weaknesses, I think that’s always the best way to go, but also you need to remember your strengths and how to use them.

“I think for me it was tough last year because I really wanted to perform after the August break and that’s when there were a few difficult races.

“So that was a pretty tough time which I learned from massively.” he concluded.

Mercedes would be hoping that this rivalry within the team actually helps both their drivers get the best out of themselves.