In a Formula One team, there is always one driver who leads the team, and the other remains under the shadow of the better one, the one with more wins. This is not a rule or custom or culture, but it is a fact that is often proved correct for a certain period of time in a team. Look at Mercedes, those five years when there were Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas were teammates.
Hamilton won 5 championships, while Bottas could only claim 10 GP wins. As Bottas says, it took him five years to realize that his teammate, the seven-time world champion was the better driver. So no matter what he does, you could never match the level. Recently after driving for Alfa Romeo for a season, he emerged to claim his tenure with Hamilton as “Exhausting.”
Valtteri Bottas replaced Nico Rosberg in 2017 in Mercedes. Hamilton was a two-time world champion already when Bottas joined the team. However, in 2016, Nico took the driver’s title, beating the Briton. Then the German made a surprising retirement, probably because all his energy was lost battling with Hamilton.
Bottas joined the team with hopes of doing something like Rosberg. He did claim podiums, Grand Prix wins, and Poles but could never win the championship. On the other hand, his teammate, Lewis, was clinching one title after another. The pressure was developed for Bottas to prove himself that he could win too. The constant battles, struggles, and failures made the whole period very “exhausting” for him.
It was Better For Valtteri Bottas To Leave Mercedes!
In an episode of Maria Veitola season 2, Bottas claimed, “such a competitive nature made it hard to accept [that he was not as good as Hamilton].” However, ultimately accepting the reality, Valteri revealed, “It was only in the last year that I could accept that Hamilton was a better driver [than me].” He always wondered how he could beat Lewis Hamilton and win the Formula One World Championship.
And that, as a whole, made “A very exhausting five years for me,” he said. Being in Formula One, and being in one of the most dominating teams, being with a teammate who was winning year after year, could only develop one dream, ‘win the title right away’. But even after putting everything Valtteri Bottas could not achieve it, and “it was hard to accept.”
After five years, when the Finnish driver finally left the Mercedes seat, the pressure was released. He no more had to accept that he was not good enough in Alfa Romeo. Bottas himself claimed several times that he is a lot happier now than before. At present, he is not one of the main characters of the sport.
He does not have to face the camera everywhere as he had to during his contract with Mercedes. The team’s principal, Toto Wolff, somehow knew that it was better for Valtteri Bottas to leave. In an interview with Motorsport, he said, “I think that it was also a good moment for Bottas to leave Mercedes because the pressure was enormous on him, and he did not want to be a wingman.”