Bottas says Russell has no chance against Hamilton – After five years at Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas will be racing for Alfa Romeo in the 2022 Formula 1 season. His successor in the Silver Arrow is George Russell. But the young British driver, who previously drove for Williams, will find it extremely difficult, as Bottas explains.
“I don’t see anyone beating Lewis in the same car in the near future,” Bottas told the newspaper “The Sun”. While Russell will find his feet immediately because he has been in the Mercedes environment for years and has been a reserve driver, Bottas added: “But beating Lewis is not easy. I’ve had to experience that.”
Hamilton’s big plus is his “consistency”, Bottas analysed. This sets him apart from the rest, he said. “Every driver has his ups and downs, but Hamilton’s basic performance is already very high,” said the Finn, adding: “Even if he has a bad day, it’s not really bad.”
Hamilton’s second big skill, he said, is that he can adapt perfectly to changing conditions. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the set-up or something else,” the 32-year-old elaborated.
“I ‘learned a lot’ at Mercedes”
Add to that the driving skills of the seven-time world champion. “His tyre management is exceptional,” Bottas praised. “He combines all these things with his talent.” In addition, Hamilton works incredibly hard behind the scenes, which many observers don’t even notice. In short: Russell should by no means hope to leave the veteran behind in the near future.
Bottas himself was unable to beat Hamilton in any of their seasons together. While the Briton won 50 races during the five-year period, Bottas only managed ten victories in the Mercedes car, which was usually superior to the competition.
Nevertheless, Bottas is broadly satisfied with his ten wins and 20 pole positions as a record, even if he admitted in his podcast on the Finnish platform ‘Supla’: “When I joined the team in 2017, the only thing I could think about was winning the world championship. I didn’t manage to do that. But I have to look at the positives.”
And the 32-year-old can definitely think of some:
“I’ve grown as a racer and as a person. I’ve learned so much. And we have achieved some really cool things together. So there are also a lot of positives, and I definitely take that with me.”
Logical response from Bottas. The higher he praises LH, the higher he will be judged himself. However, unintentially he is right about Russell vs Hamilton. Russell will be no match for Hamilton but for different reasons.
The Merc-Hamilton plan was always to get that eighth title and then Hamikton would retire. That plan failed (for reasons we will be discussing for the rest of our lifes 🙂 ). So for ‘22 they will retry. And you can be sure that in Russells contract is a clause that obliges him to support Hamilton in any possibke way to help him get that eighth. Probably with the addition that after Hamiltons retirement, he will be the nr 1 driver in ‘23 for Mercedes.
So… Russel will be no threat at all for Hamilton this year.
With the regulations changed and a conceptually new car development I don’t think they’ll be naive enough to believe they’ll be on top from the off. Also the challenge may be more than just one other driver. I think they’ll be pushing for points more consistently and will require both doing the best they can. Six races in and we will be seeing a clearer picture as that’s when the development starts to show .
my question is, where’s Steve? a mostly pro LH story and he’s nowhere
🙂 Steve is not interested in positives about LH. He needs negative handles to trigger his insecurity issues. I gave up on him. He’s beyond salvation. He now even thinks i changed my name… It takes one to know one i guess 🙂