© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says reliability issues played a part in Valtteri Bottas‘ points deficit, while the Finn comments on his 2020 season.
This year Lewis Hamilton completely dominated his rivals on his way to his seventh world title. Judging by Valtteri Bottas’ 110 point deficit to the Briton, it seems he was also completely dominated, but Hamilton doesn’t fully agree.
“The media have commented on ‘[Bottas] 2.0’ and it’s so true,” Hamilton said at the Bahrain Grand Prix Thursday press conference.
“Every year you can see him just grafting away, chipping away at trying to raise the bar in so many different areas.
“You’ve seen this year, while yes, the points gap now is where it is, if you look at a lot of the qualifying [sessions], it was the smallest of margins.
“So closing the gap in qualifying, he has done already, which has made it quite challenging. In race trim, naturally, you can see obviously the consistency that I’ve had this year has [been] really what’s made the difference. But if you look on the race weekends, it was so close.
“Of course there’s a points gap of seven points [between P1 and P2] and that consistently [adds up] over a period of time. Valtteri has also been unfortunate this year with the reliability issues, so it makes it look even bigger than it is.
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“When I talk about people needing to give Valtteri his due respect, I think you’ve got to remember who he’s driving up against.
“It’s not easy being my team-mate. But he comes in weekend in, weekend out, with just the same mentality.
“He’s never moaning, complaining that something is wrong with the car. It’s always just: ‘I’ve got to do a better job’.
“I don’t know any other driver that does that here, and I think that’s something we share in common, I’d like to think.
“We come into these weekends with a fresh head, and I think, mentally, he’s one of the strongest drivers here,” concluded the seven-time champion.
Despite losing the 2020 championship to Hamilton, Bottas believes his season had “many positives”.
“From my side of course the season is not finished yet, there are still three races, so to get the overall picture from this season there’s still a lot you can do and try to get a positive ending,” said the Finn.
“It’s a fact that for me the championship is lost, but I still keep pushing and if I look back at this year there are many positives I can take.
“I have been able to improve in many areas, for sure not still enough to win the title, but I’ll keep pushing.
“Yes, there were some unlucky races where I lost some points, but there were also races where Lewis was better than me and that’s, in the end, how he made the difference.
“Sometimes it was just very fine margins about how qualifying or the race ended up, in terms of what kind of strategy I was pushing for or how things ended up.
“You know, in this sport the points’ difference can look pretty big now, I know, but, in the end it comes down to fine margins and I’ve been unable to be consistently at such a top level as Lewis has this year, and that made the difference. It’s not a lot but it was enough to win.
“That’s something I’ll keep pushing on for the future, because I feel I’m getting better each year. That gives me hope and motivation and that will to push more and try to keep growing for the future, so I’m looking forward to next year.”
Valtteri is going into the last three races with confidence.
“For sure I’m confident – that needs to be the mindset going into any race that you need to have the confidence.
“And if you don’t have it, you need to find it somewhere, whether if it’s with extra preparation or whatever you do between the races.
“You always have to find it I’m in a good mindset and for sure I’m here to win,” concluded the Finn.
