Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver Valtteri Bottas has praised teammate Lewis Hamilton following his fourth World Championship Title, saying “the right man won the title.”
Bottas came into the team at the start of this year, following now former-World Champion and ex-Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg’s departure at the end of last year. Whilst Bottas has enjoyed success with the team, taking both his first and second wins of his career, he quickly fell away from the title – leaving Hamilton and Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel to fight it out.
Whilst the season turned into a two-horse race, the Finn is glad that teammate Hamilton won – saying that Hamilton deserves the title.
“The right man won the title this year, Lewis absolutely deserves this!
“He’s my team mate, so I know he’s not only talented, but also a hard worker, and a really nice guy. So even though we’re competing, I’m also happy for him – but I still want to beat him next year.
Bottas had a quiet Mexican Grand Prix, slotting into second at the start and remaining there until the end. Whilst he didn’t have the pace to win, he’s happy with his seventh podium of the season.
“The race today was pretty straightforward after the start. I saw in Turn 2 that Max and Sebastian were side-by-side, and one of them went a bit wide, so I knew Turn 3 was going to be a mess. So I decided to go inside and cut the corner and get a good exit.
“After that there was not much happening. Unfortunately, we couldn’t challenge Max today, so I drove it home.
“We saw we didn’t have the pace to win the race, so we have a lot of things to learn. But overall, it was not a bad day for us – I felt I got the most out of the car, it was good to be on the podium after such a long time, and of course Lewis won the title.”
