F1 News
Bottas doesn't understand the criticism: 'There must be a reason I don't know'
- GPblog.com
Valtteri Bottas is fed up with the criticism from people at home. The Finn says he sometimes looks at his teammate's performance with admiration, but cannot understand why so many people have an opinion about his performance.
Bottas came to Mercedes in 2017 as the replacement for Nico Rosberg, and while his first year was fairly competitive for a driver thrown in at the deep end, in the years since he has never been able to step up and put real pressure on Lewis Hamilton. The fact that he was almost beaten by replacement George Russell in 2020 only served to increase the pressure.
Criticism of Bottas
''I've learned by now not to let that kind of thing influence me. I try to avoid that negativity. Whatever you do, there will always be negativity. Sometimes it is less, sometimes it is more. It's an enormous motivation to prove people wrong. I just don't understand why there is this kind of criticism. There must be a reason for it, but I don't know it. I have no idea what is going on in the heads of those people," the Mercedes driver told Motorsport.com.
However, the criticism is understandable. Bottas drives with the same material as the man who has already won six world titles with Mercedes. For comparison. Since the arrival of Bottas, Hamilton won 42 races, while Bottas won nine. As many as Max Verstappen, who clearly had to do it with less material in that timeframe.
The comparison with Hamilton
Yet Bottas thinks things are different. ''I think the people who really understand the sport and look at the details do understand. But there are - as in every sport - a lot of people who just shout from their couch and underestimate things'', says the Finn. He does admit, however, that his team-mate can sometimes do special things with the car.
''I've sometimes thought: How is that possible when it comes to a single corner or a stint with a particular compound on a particular circuit. I always try to understand that. I can only say that it is not an easy track. If you look at the numbers, Lewis is the most successful driver in the history of F1, and I have to go up against him every weekend. It's not very easy. But it really motivates me, and the goal for me remains to try and beat him. That's what keeps me going,'' Bottas concludes.