“You’re replacing a guy who had just won the World Championship”– Valtteri Bottas talks about pressure he faced while joining Mercedes

Tanish Chachra | 18/08/2021
"You’re replacing a guy who had just won the World Championship"– Valtteri Bottas talks about pressure he faced while joining Mercedes

“You’re replacing a guy who had just won the World Championship”– Valtteri Bottas talks about the pressure he faced after replacing Nico Rosberg.

Valtteri Bottas had big boots to fill in after Mercedes approached to replace Nico Rosberg, who only recently defeated arguably the greatest F1 driver Lewis Hamilton in his peak.

Mercedes’ objective in hiring Bottas was to end the superstar clash in Mercedes, which apparently worked successfully with Bottas coming into the setup.

However, it was a massive move for the Finn race driver, and the pressure from moving from Williams to the best F1 team overwhelmed him.

“I definitely had big shoes to fill,” Bottas told Hypebeast. “You’re replacing a guy who had just won the World Championship, and then he decided to stop.

“I was the next one in line and the team chose me so for sure, in this sport there’s always some form of pressure. “But it was a big jump in my career, and I had to make sure that I could make the most out of the opportunity, to perform and get a new contract for the following year.

“I’ve had to do that pretty much every year, because in this sport you always have to prove yourself. I think as the years go by, you start to learn how to deal with it and luckily for me, it only took a few races into the season to get my first win, which earned the trust of the team.”

It’s tough to be Lewis Hamilton’s teammate.

While Bottas’s future in Mercedes for 2022 is uncertain, he claims that he thoroughly enjoyed his time at the Brackley-based team in the last four years.

“Being Lewis’ team-mate is not easy because he’s pretty fast, both in qualifying and especially in the races,” said Bottas. “It makes me push myself more and always try to dig deeper or try new things because I know I need to give absolutely everything I can if I want to beat him.”

“So in that sense, it’s not easy but it’s also really motivating. It’s also been really enjoyable to be honest. We’ve been able to work really well as a team and if you look back at the last four years, we’ve managed to achieve great things as a team, so it keeps me working hard.”

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Nico Rosberg Valtteri Bottas

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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