“Fourth year in a row defeat tough to accept” – Valtteri Bottas on losing yet again to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton

“Fourth year in a row defeat tough to accept” – Valtteri Bottas finds it tough to swallow he lost out to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton yet again.

Mercedes won the Constructors Championship for the seventh consecutive season, a record. Over these past seven years, Lewis Hamilton won the Drivers Championship six times, with Nico Rosberg winning once. For whatever reasons, Valtteri Bottas hasn’t been able to replicate Rosberg and dethrone Hamilton from the pedestal. The Finn believes it is done to “very fine margins”, something which Hamilton has excelled at achieving.

“It was sometimes about very fine margins, whether that was about qualifying or how the race ended up in terms of what kind of strategy I was pushing for, or he was pushing for, and how things ended up. But in this sport – the points difference can look pretty big now, I know, but in the end, it comes down to fine margins and I’ve been unable to be consistently at such a top-level as Lewis has been this year, so I think that’s made a difference.

Battling Lewis Hamilton takes it out of Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas has also spoken about the incredible challenge of the intra-team rivalry with Lewis Hamilton. The Finn pushes for the win every weekend, but the Brit just edges him, all in all. Bottas won only two races this season – Austria and Russia – as he finished second in the standings.

“It’s no secret that battling with Lewis for years and years, I know how much it takes out of me. When I, every single weekend, try to get 100% out of me and keep pushing. Sometimes I get close, sometimes I manage to beat him. But having a fourth year in a row defeat in terms of the championship title is tough to accept.”

Also read: “I would love to get it done before Christmas” – Lewis Hamilton cannot wait to sign Mercedes contract extension