Former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas opens up about his time in Mercedes and how he was already considering retirement. This was mainly due to the pressure Bottas faced competing against Lewis Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas signed with Mercedes after a few competitive seasons with Williams. He replaced Nico Rosberg from the 2017 season who retired from the sport after winning his maiden F1 world championship.
Nico Rosberg left Formula One mainly due to the intense rivalry with Lewis Hamilton. Taking similar patterns from here, even Bottas once thought of retiring from the sport due to the competition with the Briton.
What led to Valtteri Bottas considering a Formula One retirement?
Valtteri Bottas reveals that the 2018 season was a difficult one for him and was close to retiring from the sport altogether. He came with the aim of defeating the seven times world champion but could not in the first two seasons.
According to him, there was a transitional period in the team in which he went from becoming a challenger to a team player. The Finnish driver could not really enjoy driving the cars and felt pain in the final few races of the 2018 season.
The current Alfa Romeo driver had a career to be proud of in Mercedes where he secured 10 Grand Prix wins. The only thing he was not able to do was dethrone Hamilton as the new world champion.
Also Read: Sebastian Vettel once revealed Lewis Hamilton’s room number during a press conference
Valtteri Bottas’ competition against Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas understands what went wrong between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton after the history repeated with himself. According to him, life at Mercedes is not easy.
The pressure of battling the seven times world champion is one thing. It takes a toll on the mind and that’s when the drivers lose focus, get depressed, and start having self-doubts.
Things have changed now, Bottas is in a much more comfortable position with Alfa Romeo. He is helping the team with his experience and is also a mentor for Zhou Guanyu.
Also Read: Fernando Alonso responds to Lewis Hamilton praising him for never giving up on F1
