Valtteri Bottas has revealed his thoughts about letting Lewis Hamilton pass him, saying he never likes doing that.
Jaws dropped in disgust as Mercedes ordered race leader Bottas to let Hamilton by at the 2018 Russian GP. The Finn was in prime position to win the race, but had to make way for his teammate who was in a title race at the time.
The situation was not ideal, and Bottas expressed his annoyance with the entire episode, stating that he was extremely dissatisfied with his team for compromising his race.
Recently, Bottas revealed his thoughts about letting Hamilton pass him, and said that it almost made him lose interest in racing.
“Yeah, it was tough,” Bottas told the Beyond the Grid podcast, as quoted by Racingnews365.com.
“You know, obviously, I made a decision, I did it. Although, it was like biting my own teeth together and really didn’t feel natural and not right, because I’m a racer. But I did it for the team.
“But I also think, at that moment, I lost certain sense of… Everything just became a bit more tricky after that for the rest of the season (sic).
“Because I realised that, ‘Okay, my role is now basically just helping,’ and I couldn’t really digest that. And then I think I wasn’t in the right mindset for the rest of the year.”
Consistency is key
However, Bottas conceded that he was perhaps more inconsistent than Hamilton was, and heaped praise on his teammate for operating at the highest level all the time.
“Lewis always kept performing in a really consistent way, all the time,” he admitted.
“And then, once there was a bit of a gap in the points, then obviously the focus starts to shift to the car that is most likely going to win the championship.
“I would say the biggest difference between me and Lewis in recent years was that he’s always been able to perform at a high level, he rarely had bad weekends.
“He obviously had some, but less than me, and it is impressive how he can always be there, no matter what conditions, which track, what life situation, whatever. Once he gets in the car, he always delivers,” he concluded.
Read more: Hamilton clarifies why he decided to bad mouth Bottas – “Naturally people jump to criticise”