Bottas warns Red Bull: "The updates are on track"

Bottas points to competition

"It's not such a pleasant situation," agrees the 31-year-old driver in conversation with the Japanese medium."I would like to make it clear that I don't think my personal performance has deteriorated in any way. It's just a result of the relative competitiveness of the package and, as I said before, I think that will improve in the future."

So, according to Bottas himself, the fact that his best performance in 2021 is one-second place is due to the fact that Red Bull Racing has made a big step with its RB16B. Bottas' goal is still to become world champion, but his words actually say it all. "We are only a few points behind Lando Norris (third in the world championship, ed.) and we want to make up as many places as possible."

Strong engine Mercedes

After the French Grand Prix, Honda seemed to have the best power unit in the field, but at Silverstone and the Hungaroring Mercedes again had the advantage. The German racing team has had the strongest engine in the field in recent years anyway and that is partly thanks to partner Petronas, as Bottas also knows.

"I think the success of our partnership with Petronas is illustrated by the fact that we have won the drivers' and constructors' championship seven times in a row. Petronas has made a huge contribution in terms of both performance and reliability. Without their support, the Mercedes powerplant would not have been able to achieve the level of dominance it has. Needless to say, that relationship has continued this year. I can't comment on specific improvements, but the updates are on track and they are all things of which you can feel the evolution," he concludes.