Lewis Hamilton says he’s unlikely to gift a win to Valtteri Bottas in return for the victory his team mate handed him in the Russian Grand Prix.
Hamilton won in Sochi after Bottas was ordered to let him through earlier in the race to help guarantee Hamilton won the championship. Hamilton has since clinched the title, but said he is unlikely to give Bottas a win back and ruled out the possibility of Mercedes instructing him to.“The team are not going to make that call,” said Hamilton.
“If I’m in the position – it’s not something I’ve asked Valtteri if he’d want that – but I don’t think he’s going to want that. He’s going to want to win it in his own way. So I don’t know if I’ll be doing him any favours in the sense of giving him a win.
“I don’t think he needs that anyway, I think he can do it himself. So all I can do is try to make sure I’m supportive throughout the process, throughout the weekend. I’m always really open with my set-up so I’ll continue to do so.”
In the aftermath of the September race Hamilton said he would have “no problems” with giving Bottas a win in return for their Sochi position swap.
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ColdFly (@)
8th November 2018, 16:18
Fair point to not ‘give a win’ and slowing down when 30s ahead.
He could though play a perfect wingman and pit early or late to slow down the competition. I’m sure that Toto will be as complimentary as he was to Bottas ;)
erikje
8th November 2018, 18:08
H: I noticed some vibrations..
T: Reduce speed
T: do not block Valtteri he is in a fight with…blabal
H: okay..
Ben Needham (@ben-n)
8th November 2018, 16:19
Makes sense. The team surely wouldn’t impose team orders now and Hamilton’s right in saying that Bottas would surely not want to take a win in that way; much that Hamilton didn’t particularly relish Sochi.
I still maintain that they did the right thing, as Wolff said (paraphrasing): “I’d rather be the villain today than the fool at the end of the season”.
Here’s hoping that Bottas can legitimately take the fight to Hamilton in the final races and in 2019.
GongTong (@gongtong)
8th November 2018, 20:33
Agreed. On all three points.
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
8th November 2018, 16:23
I don’t remember all this wisdom a few races back
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
8th November 2018, 16:47
Hamilton said exactly the same thing today as he said immediately after the Russian GP.
https://www.racefans.net/2018/09/30/hamilton-willing-give-bottas-win-back/
Phylyp (@phylyp)
8th November 2018, 16:30
Ha ha ha, oh, that picture always reminds me of this other masterpiece.
MB (@muralibhats)
8th November 2018, 16:55
So the tram will interfere when Hamilton needs a win and not when Bottas wants? Not that Bottas will like it to happen, but there are many ways team can screw up strategy slightly to make it happen.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
8th November 2018, 17:14
Now there’s an idea to spice up the races … Trams!
I know I know – team ;)
MB (@muralibhats)
8th November 2018, 18:02
:) why not
Xcm
8th November 2018, 19:31
@mb don’t be disengenuois, this isn’t a trump/Obama debate.
Mercedes imposes team orders for the good of the team, and everyone (who matters) knows it.
MB (@muralibhats)
8th November 2018, 20:35
The team order doesn’t seem to have helped the team. The team got the same amount of points. And everyone you meant?? Who all?
Why didn’t the team help Rosberg when Hamilton was pushing him to Vettel’s way? Wasn’t it good for the team to make Hamilton go faster? Were they ok for Rosberg to loose championship but Hamilton become new champion?
Js
9th November 2018, 2:34
That’s a different situation. Ros was in a championship fight with ham. One of them were going to win it. Plus they did get on the radio and tell ham to speed up. Bottas was out of the championship fight when asked to let ham go through. It is best for the team if their driver wins the championship. Bottas letting ham by helps them get closer to the championship. With ros they didn’t have to worry about that since he and ham were the only two fighting for it.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
8th November 2018, 17:11
I wouldn’t want a “Gifted Win” either. Every time I looked at the trophy I would feel really sickened to be honest.
Valtteri knows he can do the job for himself but that his position in the team will sometimes require him to play second best.
To give him a win would be like patting him on the head and saying “Good Boy”. He is better than that.
James Coulee
9th November 2018, 0:55
But ham couldn’t do the job for himself and needed to be given a win. How is that?
Todfod (@todfod)
9th November 2018, 6:18
Honestly, Hamilton switches off after the championship is wrapped up. He won’t be racing with the same intensity as he has all season. Now, it’s up to Bottas to capitalise on that and take a win or two himself.
You’re right on the “Gifted win” , there’s no way any competitor can be proud of that. I think Hamilton’s gift to Bottas will be that he’s not going to give it 101% for the next two races.
Niefer (@niefer)
8th November 2018, 17:30
For starters, he should have been supportive when Bottas needed him most, around lap 25 of the Russian GP.
Now, it doesn’t matter anymore. Wingman is done.
xoxos from Berger, Barrichello, Coulthard, Massa, etc, et al.
Matthew Coyne
8th November 2018, 20:18
Translated version for those who have just read the clickbait title:
Hamilton doesn’t think Bottas would want him to or need him to give him a win.
For the love of good please, the content here is brilliant but these titles just annoy people and misinform those who just read the title and nothing more.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th November 2018, 20:54
There’s nothing incorrect or misleading about the headline at all. I don’t know what your objection is because you haven’t pointed out what you dislike about it, you’ve just suggested an alternative.
HansieSlim (@)
8th November 2018, 21:46
Not a very professional or constructive response either is it?
trublu (@trublu)
8th November 2018, 22:29
A more accurate title is “Bottas unlikely to want gifted win, says Hamilton”. The title you went with gives different connotations at a glance no matter how much you act like it doesn’t. It gives leeway for a suggestion that Hamilton just doesn’t want to reciprocate the same favor from Bottas.
petebaldwin (@)
8th November 2018, 23:33
He says he doesn’t think Bottas would want to win that way so he “doesn’t know” if he’ll give him the win back.
That suggests to me that whilst it may happen, it’s fairly unlikely. Therefore the headline seems spot on…
As with anything though, if you only read the headline, it’s your own fault if you end up mis-informed.
BlackJackFan
9th November 2018, 3:54
With the proliferation of news these days there simply isn’t time to read everything. Perhaps this is why headlines are more important than you think…
Also… you say:
“That suggests to me that whilst it may happen, it’s fairly unlikely. Therefore the headline seems spot on…”
Strange how ‘suggests’ and ‘fairly unlikely’ add up to: ‘spot on’…! ;-)
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
8th November 2018, 20:34
Lewis tends to lose his edge after winning the title, so it’s very possible the VB will out-qualify him for the remaining races. If they happen to be in front of the Ferraris then it won’t be “gifting” a win, it’ll be on merit.
petebaldwin (@)
8th November 2018, 23:22
Its very interesting that Lewis says “Bottas wouldn’t want to win that way” – I can only assume Lewis has lower standards than Valtteri because he was more than happy to win that way himself!
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th November 2018, 23:53
No, he wasn’t, but I agree that hamilton, and you can even include schumacher in 2002, as lead drivers who mercedes\ferrari wouldn’t even think of firing for disobeying team orders, also looking at the situation in both championships, could\should have refused to obey such team orders, bottas and barrichello couldn’t, they could’ve lost their seat.