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Valtteri Bottas is yet to receive a contract for the 2025 season. The 10x race winner spoke about the challenge of competing against the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton during an interview with Auto Motor und Sport.
Bottas joined Mercedes-AMG after Nico Rosberg's exit at the end of 2016. The Nastola-born racer partnered with Hamilton for five seasons from 2017 to 2021. Bottas clinched all of his 10 career race wins, 58 podium place finishes, and 20 pole positions in the years with the German team. He also finished runner-up to Hamilton in 2019 and 2020 and went on to help Mercedes win its eighth consecutive constructors' title in his last season in 2021.
While discussing his time with Mercedes-AMG with Auto Motor und Sport, Bottas highlighted the harsh reality of racing against the legendary British driver.
“It took me until the end of my five years with Mercedes to realize and accept that I couldn’t beat Lewis for a whole season. He was really at the peak of his ability then. But that’s life. That’s racing," Bottas said.
Bottas' statement as mentioned earlier was shared on X by a Formula 1 fan page. Here's a look at the post, captioned:
"Valtteri Bottas on his years as Sir Lewis Hamilton's teammate"
As of now, Bottas has been unable to score any points in the ongoing season. This happens to be the first season since his debut in 2013 where the Finnish racer has failed to score any points in the entire year.
"You gain more consistency, more confidence" - Valtteri Bottas feels he is performing better than his time with Mercedes-AMG
Although Valtteri Bottas is currently at the bottom of the drivers' standings, he feels he is performing better than his time with Mercedes-AMG. The 35-year-old spoke about the same in a media interaction during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
"Yeah, it's how the sport is. I think it's not just this season, but if you look at this season and the last season, when you're fighting towards the back, obviously, it's much less visible on what you can do and what kind of performances are you having," Bottas commented.
“I feel like, yes, especially in qualifying this year. I haven't felt any signs of being worse. If anything, you keep getting better with experience. You gain more consistency, more confidence. You can solve different issues in a different way. You can adapt to the car the more time you spend in the sport. I feel actually I'm driving better than what I did at Mercedes, but obviously it's not that visible,” he added.
With just six races remaining in the 2024 season, Valtteri Bottas will likely be looking at adding a few points to his and Kick Sauber's tally for the year.
