“Accept the guy next to you is better than you”: Max Verstappen talks about Valtteri Bottas getting overshadowed by Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes

F1 drivers do complete individually for the drivers’ championship. However, they are part of the team, and every duo on the grid objectively vie for the constructors’ championship.

Therefore, teams do informally have a priority among the two drivers, not to jeopardise the constructors’ championship and seamlessly aim for the other title.

Like at Red Bull, Max Verstappen is preferred with better strategies over Red Bull. And in Mercedes’ case, Lewis Hamilton always got an edge over Valtteri Bottas, which helped him get four drivers’ titles since the Finnish race driver joined the Silver Arrows.

Also read: Lando Norris ‘hates’ people questioning his relationship with Daniel Ricciardo

Max Verstappen talks about Valtteri Bottas playing the second driver role

In a video emerged online, Verstappen was seen talking to Viaplay, where he talked about Bottas playing the second fiddle at Mercedes. He opined that the driver second in the pecking order has to accept the reality and superiority of his teammate.

“I mean you’re still finishing on the podium, sometimes you win a race, you begin on pole,” said Verstappen. “You just have to accept that the guy next to you is a bit better than you. Some people can’t accept it and then it starts to go very wrong and you don’t survive that long.”

Verstappen added that Bottas accepted that role and aided Hamilton in his championship wins. Bottas has also often accepted that initially he used to be very hard on himself when thing didn’t go his way, but in the end he accepted it and moved on.

In the end, Bottas saw the end of his time at Mercedes in 2021. Now, the Finnish race driver serves Alfa Romeo and will be competing for them in the 2023 season.

Is it a message for Sergio Perez?

Like Bottas, Perez is seen as the second driver at Red Bull. It’s accepted that Verstappen is fairly the better driver of the two and deserves to have the hold of the better strategies.

But Perez never got these many resources in his career, and he easily has the best car on the grid for the first time in his career. Therefore, it’s natural to have him title ambitions.

Red Bull’s 2nd driver trying to follow Max Verstappen in every race #F1 #TGF1 pic.twitter.com/OGYSEVYLTc

— F1 Portrayed By Top Gear (@TopGearFormula1) May 14, 2021

By the end of the season, Perez openly showed his interest to fight for the championship. Moreover, the conflict between Verstappen and Perez in Brazil also created resentment between the two. So while Verstappen didn’t take his name, could it be a message for the Mexican?

Also read: For $4 million McLaren let the greatest ever F1 car designer to make Sebastian Vettel & Max Verstappen world champions

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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