Valtteri Bottas has been a Formula 1 driver since 2013 and has had his fair share of teammates in the sport. However, Bottas admits that no one comes close to Lewis Hamilton, his teammate at Mercedes when it comes to quickness.
In the recent episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast, Bottas was talking about helping his current teammate Guanyu Zhou settle into F1 when the host Tom Clarkson asked him an interesting question. Bottas teamed up with the likes of Pastor Maldonado and Felipe Massa before joining Hamilton at Mercedes. Clarkson asks Bottas, who the quickest driver of them all was to which Bottas had no hesitation in picking Hamilton’s name.
According to Bottas, Hamilton is not just the quickest driver when compared to his past teammates, but the quickest driver in F1 overall, ahead of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. When asked about what makes Hamilton so good, Bottas’ first response was that he is “annoyingly talented”.
Lewis Hamilton works harder than anyone else in F1, says Bottas
Other than his already existing natural talent, Bottas feels that Hamilton’s work ethic is what makes him better than anyone else. The 33-year-old revealed that Hamilton works way harder than people outside F1 actually realize. In fact, his hard work isn’t limited to just race weekends, with Bottas stating that even away from the track, he puts in the grind.
In the race weekends, Bottas recalls how Hamilton was often “the last person to leave from the paddock.” On top of his talent and hard work, Hamilton demands a lot from himself, and the bar he sets for himself is so high, that his achievements turn out to be extraordinary.
Bottas remembers how difficult it was for him to defeat Hamilton, and admits that when he did manage to get the better of the seven-time world champion, for him, “it was a good day”.
Bottas committed to helping Alfa Romeo and Guanyu Zhou grow
Bottas spent five seasons at Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton has his teammate. However, in 2022, he decided to leave the Brackley-based outfit and sign a multi-year contract with Alfa Romeo. The Swiss team hired Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou to be his teammate, and the two of them instantly hit it off.
Bottas and Zhou share a great relationship, both on and off the track. In F1, Bottas insists that he wants to help his teammate grow as much as possible and shares his experience and wisdom with him. Even though Zhou is no longer a rookie, Bottas is committed to helping him, in order to assist Alfa Romeo’s growth.
The Hinwil-based outfit have had a slow start to 2023, but Bottas believes that if he has Zhou work together as a team, they can spearhead the team’s charge towards the front of the grid.
