Valtteri Bottas feels his recent slump means he is facing the ‘most difficult’ time of his Formula 1 career to date, with his result in the Malaysian Grand Prix highlighting his current deficit to team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas, who recently agreed a one-year extension to his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team contract to cover the 2018 season, finished more than forty seconds behind Hamilton at the Sepang International Circuit, with the Finn admitting to having little confidence in his W08 in Malaysia.
The twenty-eight-year-old, who joined Mercedes at the start of the season to replace Nico Rosberg, currently sits third in the championship standings with five races remaining having taken two wins this season in Russia and Austria, insists he needs to get out of the recent slump he has found himself in and that he needs to start scoring the big points to aid the team in the Constructors’ Championship as well as his own position in the Drivers’ Championship.
“For sure it is difficult,” said Bottas on Motorsport.com. “Being honest, it may be the most difficult time of my career so far, in terms of how it feels every time I go in the car.
“I just want to perform. I want to be in a good level and I haven’t been doing that for some time for various reasons. There are many question marks still for me, for the team. So I definitely want to turn it around quickly.
“If I keep doing races like this for long, that is not going to be a good thing for anyone. So, the team needs the points. I need the points, I want the points.
“I want to do much better than this, so definitely I want to turn it around quickly – and we need to do whatever is needed to do it, but like I said – many, many question marks.”