© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Valtteri Bottas says “nothing has changed” between him and Lewis Hamilton since he left Mercedes, and he thinks their “friendship will for sure last”.
On numerous occasions Lewis Hamilton said Valtteri Bottas was ‘the best team-mate ever’. Although the Finn left Mercedes at the end of 2021, he says his relationship with Hamilton is still going strong.
“It’s been nice, it was pretty natural,” Bottas told People magazine.
“After the race in Bahrain, I drove past him on the in-lap and I heard he was on the podium, so I gave him a thumbs-up and he did the same.
“We actually flew together after the race to Dubai, and we flew from Dubai to Saudi Arabia. So we are still sharing flights. In a way, nothing has changed.
“We are not team-mates but we are still mates. It’s nice. We have a good relationship in a way. We did achieve quite a bit of things together as team-mates.
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“I think that kind of friendship will for sure last too.”
However, Bottas also admits it is hard to become proper friends with drivers you are racing on the track.
“I think it’s quite hard to, yes. It’s actually quite hard to properly develop a good friendship when you are racing against each other.
“I think we just learned that racing is racing and outside of the track it doesn’t matter. I think we both kind of got that.
“We are racing against each other, but then we can still share flights or do whatever,” concluded the Finn.
