Valtteri Bottas speaks on being Lewis Hamilton’s teammate

Valtteri Bottas speaks to ESPN on competing with his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, as the world champion is highly competitive.

Valtteri Bottas has always been considered secondary to Lewis Hamilton, who has won several world championships with the incumbent team in Formula 1.

The Finnish driver in interaction with ESPN has talked about being a teammate of Hamilton when asked about how tough is it to be his teammate, who is mentally highly competitive and can be considered among the greatest in the sport.

“Of course when you are in a top team everyone requires a lot from you like I also require a lot from the people I work with. That mentality of the team is also to bring the results, so for sure it is not easy and everyone is put under pressure — but hopefully in a good way to perform better and find out more about yourself,” he said.

“Against Lewis, yeah for sure, it’s a great challenge. If you look at his record he is pretty impressive and I know it’s tough to beat him, but I also know I can do it.

“Is it the toughest job in F1? I still get to be in the best car, and have the opportunity every weekend to win the race — it’s there for me to get — so that’s why it makes it a bit easier. I don’t mind working hard for it because you know there is going to be a reward if it goes well. I think it’s a good place to be.”

Valtteri Bottas on his strengths

Bottas, however, doesn’t underestimate himself and has emphasised his strengths set him apart from his teammate and that’s why he has managed to remain on the top.

“I think I’m very hungry for results and that makes me work hard with the team. I know he works hard as well, but I try to work harder. In my driving, I am all the time making some really good steps forward with my driving style and pace, and especially race pace this year. It’s now about getting clean weekends.”

“It’s all about fine margins and getting those right. My strength is that I am willing to discover more and more and I feel like I am improving all the time and I am still peaking.”

“Weaknesses? Lewis is a very complete driver and very consistent. His performance, I can’t point out one clear thing where I am losing out to him, but it is about getting things right where it matters.”

Bottas has recently signed a one-year-long extension with Mercedes, which keeps him the driver of the team till 2021, quashing all the rumours around Sebastian Vettel to Mercedes.

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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