Valtteri Bottas says he has a plan to beat Lewis Hamilton to the world championship next year and won’t be distracted by playing ‘mind games’.
But asked whether he would adopt the tactics Nico Rosberg used to take the title of Hamilton three years ago, Bottas said he was “already bored about that question because every driver is individual.”“I’m me, not Nico,” he said. “For sure I always have plans, finding the different ways on how I want to achieve my goal, which is ultimately the championship. That requires obviously to beat my team mate, but also many other drivers.”
Bottas, who secured a career-best second place in the championship this year, believes the best way to beat Hamilton is to concentrate on out-driving him.
“I’ve always preferred to do the talking and on track,” he said. “If I can keep up my performance and focus all of my energy that I have into my own performance, I think that’s going to be the best bet for me.
“If I start wasting energy elsewhere it might take my mind off of the driving and what really matters. If I can then perform at the level I want to, normally that tends to upset the other side of the garage a little bit. I know, being on the other side as well, it can lead you to mistakes and so on.
“I have a plan for next year but not really willing to share it, so we’ll find out.”
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2Fast4U
14th November 2019, 15:43
Balteri needs to be reminded that no plan survives first contact and that his role on the team is to run interference for Hamilton. The only way he’ll ascend to a #1 is to switch teams.
allstargp
14th November 2019, 16:36
I think he can still win at Mercedes if he improves his consistency.
The only team that wouldn’t allow one of their de facto #2 drivers a fair shot at the WDC is probably Maxbull.
erikje
14th November 2019, 17:01
You seem to forget the red car. A complete history of no2 drivers not allowed to win.
Marcel
14th November 2019, 17:20
Nonsense! RB hasn’t given any teamorder since multi 21. Mercedes quite a few since Bottas drives for them. Ferrari did more teamorders in the first half of this season than races…. and then there is there past….
allstargp
15th November 2019, 9:13
you mean an explicit team order
George
14th November 2019, 15:56
Rosberg beat Hamilton due to superior reliability. No mind games necessary.
2Fast4U
14th November 2019, 16:12
Exactly right, then he immediately retired as it probably surprized him as much as everyone else. “Got my WDC trophy, I’m out!”
black (@black)
14th November 2019, 16:32
Better reliability helped for sure, but he put a stellar prerformance all season long. Hamilton wasn’t always at his best, some of his starts cost him.
By the end of Japanese GP (Round 17/21) both were equal on pole positions 8-8 but on the race side Rosberg was leading comfortably 9-6. After that he only needed 4x2nd places or even 3x2nd + 1x3rd in the remaining 4 races. So he sat back and let Hamilton take easily 4 poles and 4 wins while he was safely cruising to 2nd. Had Hamilton won the Malaysian GP and not retire, he might have taken the WDC, but if you change that fact then at the same time Rosberg wouldn’t have settled for those easy 2nd place finishes at the end and probably would have gone to challenge for the win at some of them and he might still have won the title.
Martin
14th November 2019, 18:42
He didn’t. Germany, Canada, Monaco etc he had a plenty of bad races.
As they did Rosberg, but no one ever seems to want to mention that Rosberg had multiple bad starts that season too. Or that Mercedes stated they had a design problem with their clutch which is why their drivers repeatedly had problems.
Regardless Hamilton had more wins, poles and (when you look at the races that were not significantly effected by reliability issues) clearly outscored Rosberg in 2016. It’s just a fallacy to state that Rosberg won the championship for any reason other than significantly better reliability.
black (@black)
14th November 2019, 21:31
Ok obviously not every race, every driver has some low moments in a season, Hamilton had Azerbaijan, Singapore, Japan for example, races that Rosberg won confortably.
And when it comes to bad starts, Hamilton had more of them, 6 to Rosberg’s 4 i counted. Plus that infamous Mexico start where he completely ignored the first 3 corners without a penalty.
Well as i said the last 4 races are somewhat meaningless to include, because Rosberg didn’t even bother to win them, just cruise safely to 2nd. If he did, he might have won some of them, he might have still lost to all of them, we don’t know. So until the Japanese GP as i said above (that gave Rosberg the advantage of not having to win any of the last races) the Quali battle was 8-8, if we exclude 3 races (China, Russia, Belgium) where Hamilton had reliability problems, then we have 8-5 in favor of Hamilton (no surprise there). In the Race battle if we exclude the 5 races that were affected by reliability (China, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Malaysia) you still end up with a 6-5 in favor of Rosberg.
At the end of the day nobody thinks that Rosberg was a better driver than Hamilton in general, not even Rosberg thinks that. In 2014 he won 5 races, in 2015 he won (3+3more after Hamilton won the title and relaxed)=6 races. But in 2016 he gave his best and won 9 races. Like it or not he really gave Lewis a run for his money that year.
David (@billyboltaction)
15th November 2019, 13:23
You can’t possibly know this for sure. Nico was super stressed in that last race when Lewis backed him up, if he could have taken that stress away by having more points i’m sure he would have. Nico knew there was every chance his car could fail at any point in the last 4 races. I can’t believe for a moment he “backed off”, I think Lewis just finally found his form and beat Nico fair and square. It just wasn’t enough given everything that had happened.
black (@black)
15th November 2019, 14:00
@billyboltaction
Well Lewis needed all 4 wins at any cost, so he drove to the limit at every race because he couldn’t afford to lose any of them, what else could he do after all? All Rosberg wanted was to safely cruise to 2nd these last races. Not take the fight with Hamilton because things could have got dirty (and history shows us how easily it could happen) and Nico could lose the points advantage in a snap, or drive flat out for the win and stress the car even more and risk a retirement when he didn’t needed to. Just control everything and finish every race in 2nd.
Of course he was, it was the final race that would give him his first title after 2 unsuccessful campaigns against the same driver. Any other human being would be probably worse in the same situation. Lewis had nothing to lose and backed everyone up, overtaking him wasn’t an option because he would definately fight back and risk a collision and every other driver that was behind Nico also had nothing to lose if they wanted to fight for the win.
All i’m saying is “removing” the engine failure in Malaysia wouldn’t automaticaly give Lewis the title, because Rosberg wouldn’t approach the remaining races the same as he did. He might have still taken the title.
Martin
15th November 2019, 15:34
All of that is still true if the Malaysia engine failure didnt happen. It is absolutely no evidence that Rosberg wasn’t trying to win. Also he would have been stupid not to try and cover off a potential race or qualy ending mechanical issue in the last 4 races by coasting.
Hamilton had to win. A collision between Hamilton and Rosberg would have been the last thing Hamilton would have wanted as it would have guaranteed the championship to Rosberg regardless.
Sorry but that just doesn’t fly. And even even even *if* that were all true it is inarguable that Rosberg was 0 threat for the win in Brazil, so it is completely disingenuous to write off what was an otherwise brilliant drive from Hamilton.
Where was the reliability issue in Austria? It was a while ago now so maybe I am not remembering something but I wouldn’t count Rosberg’s self inflicted race or practice damage. Even ignoring that if we look at those 6 races for Rosberg:
– Bahrain: Hamilton was hit by another car and suffered significant damage to the side of his car, unable to compete for the win
– Baku: Hamiltons engine was incorrectly setup by engineers leaving him down on power and unable to complete for the win
– Siganpore: Hamilton lost significant running in both the only representative session, FP2 (hydraulics issue) and FP3, that coupled with a aero issue Mercedes discovered on his car after qualy again compromised his weekend.
So it really doesnt speak to Rosberg driving better
He gave his best in previous seasons too, he wasn’t just faffing around all those years. Rosberg performed no better in 2016 than previous seasons either, which is my point. People keep saying Rosberg stepped up his game in 2016 but his actual driving performance was in fact on a par with previous seasons. His results were just boosted by significantly asymmetrical reliability issues. Had they had equal luck Hamilton would have outscored Rosberg by 1 to 2 race wins worth of points, again much like previous seasons.
black (@black)
15th November 2019, 17:53
@Martin
With 4 races left he was 33p. ahead, with 3 left he was 26p. (a safe lead that would at least leave him with a narrow lead over Hamilton had he retired). He went to Brazil 19p. ahead (within the ‘danger zone’ as you described it) but given the difficult conditions at that race and the fact that Hamilton was untouchable there (i’d give you that, no matter what, Rosberg would have not won in Brazil), the best he could hope was to finish without crashing, preferably in 2nd.
At Abu Dhabi given how the race unfolded Hamilton seemed eager to try anything legal to win the title. In contrast to Hamilton that had already 3 titles and was fighting for another, so losing that one wasn’t gonna be the end of the world for him, Rosberg was closer than ever to win his first and only. Hamilton lost that one and look how ‘poorly’ bounced back winning the next 3. Rosberg gave everything mentally to win just that one. So with the field that close, if Rosberg tried to overtake, Hamilton would probably try to ‘sqeeze’ him at a run off or make a minor collision so that any of the drivers that were closely following him would grab the opportunity. He wasn’t winning the title if things stayed calm so why not roll the dice? If Hamilton as you say wanted just to win, then he would have drove into the distance but instead he backed off hugely.
Rosberg suffered a suspension failure at FP3 and crashed, which lead him changing the gearbox and receiving a 5-place-grid-penalty.
He made a bad start and got involved with a first-lap racing incident that cost him a few places. The same thing happened to Rosberg in Malaysia and dropped last unable to compete for the win.
Hamilton crashed on his own in quali and started 10th. And in the race Hamilton suffered some software problems 19 laps from the end, with the team unable to tell him what to do because of those stupid radio rules back then. Rosberg who was leading suffered the same a few laps latter but managed to fix it on his own. Those radio rules though were responsible that Rosberg was dropped from 2nd to 3rd in Britain.
He also made some driving errors in quali and started 3rd. In the race he was lucky that reclaimed 3rd form Raikkonen because Ricciardo ahead of him was untouchable.
Well he did… if we exclude the races he won due to Hamilton’s reliability, or gifted by luck due to Hamilton’s misfortune, or won at the end of 2015 because Hamilton admittedly was laid back, you’ll see that in 2014 he won on merit 4 races (MCO-AUT-GER-BRA), in 2015 he won on merit just 2 (ESP-AUT), but in 2016 he won on merit 6 (AUS-BHR-AZE-ITA-SIN-JPN). In 2014-2015 he barely managed to string 2 good races back-to-back. In 2016 after the first 4 he had a perfect 100p. score. He clearly raised his game.
CHIKANO (@chikano)
15th November 2019, 5:29
Let us not forget Merc was untouchable 2016 too. If we had it where the Ferrari and RedBull were competing for poles and wins like we have now then I think ROS would not be a champion
joac21 (@joac21)
14th November 2019, 17:10
He gave hamilton a much harder time specially in qualifying.
Balue (@balue)
14th November 2019, 16:02
I bet it’s about getting an early lead, so expect the overdriving to be even more pronounced come Australia.
RB13
14th November 2019, 16:12
Unless he lucks into a technical failure winning ratio of 9:1 like Rosberg did, he has no chance.
And given 2016 was basically a 2-car field and 2020 should see far better competitiveness from the Red and Blue (Purple?) teams nicking wins, he probably needs something even more lopsided than that.
erikje
14th November 2019, 17:03
Making up stories does not help serious discussion.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
14th November 2019, 16:19
Is his secret plan breaking Hamilton’s legs?
Bottas is a good driver, but so far he still seems to be missing a tenth or so to consistently beat Hamilton over a year. He’s good, but at the moment with the form Hamilton has he’s going to need technical failure or a poor year from Hamilton to help him do it. Though this year shows Bottas can make a step up so maybe there’s another ‘step’ in him, but we’ll see.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
14th November 2019, 16:35
Stage one of your cunning plan had better be to totally ignore team orders then.
I wish you all the best Valtteri but in my opinion you are not the guy they expect to win.
If you do beat Lewis they wont mind, but I don’t think that that is what they expect from you.
bob (@riptide)
14th November 2019, 17:44
Mercedes have had to change first place pit stop preference and give it to Bottas to protect him from the undercut a number of times. Thereby putting Hamilton at risk. Are you suggesting that Bottas refuses to take Hams pit stop preference and allows himself to be undercut in future?
Martin
14th November 2019, 18:44
Clearly he should, would be unfair to benefit from team orders and not reciprocate.
José Lopes da Silva
14th November 2019, 17:02
Bottas is right and I can’t wait to see his 4th attempt. He needs to:
– Out-qualify Hamilton regularly, in order to leave at least some other car between them in the grid. If Hamilton is 2nd when Bottas is on pole, and Bottas is 3rd or 4th when Hamilton is on pole, he won’t get there.
– Be on a position to win, early in the race, regularly.
– Win races while leaving some other car between him and Hamilton (like in Suzuka). If Hamilton is 2nd when Bottas wins and Bottas is 3rd or 4th when Hamilton wins, he won’t get there.
– Arrive at halfway of the championship at least at par with Hamilton on points. And on victories too.
– Remember of Prost beating champion teammates Lauda and Senna in 1985 and 1989. If Bottas focus on people saying Hamilton and Verstappen are being favourited, he’ll get to the second half of the season a ton of points behind Hamilton and the 2nd. And then James will call him.
Leroy (@g-funk)
14th November 2019, 17:16
I don’t think BOT has the mental stamina to beat HAM over the course of a season. We saw it this year: Valtteri 2.0 lasted only a few races before it was back to Bottas 1.0. He has to make no mistakes every single race to beat HAM and that is mentally exhausting. I’m not even sure he’ll beat Leclerc next year.
Karthik M
14th November 2019, 17:47
Bottas says he isn’t Nico and then continues with “for sure…” :D
Jake
14th November 2019, 18:05
He can do it for sure, as Rosberg proved. Hamilton has been flattered by some poor and inconsistent teammates over the years.
There’s no way a Bottas or a Rosberg would beat a Senna or Schumacher in their prime to a title, it would be basically impossible, but with Hamilton its certainly very possible.
grat
14th November 2019, 21:06
hahahahaha!!!!
How many other drivers, having had *three* world champions for teammates, would be accused of having poor and inconsistent teammates?
In 13 seasons, Hamilton’s been beaten twice by a teammate– and reliability was a major factor in the second one. And THAT teammate drove circles around a 7 time WDC.
CarWars (@maxv)
14th November 2019, 19:56
I havea cunning plan…
Islander
14th November 2019, 21:45
Not a very inspired statement, ‘I’ve a plan, but I won’t tell you’.
But then Bottas is the king of non-charismatics.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
14th November 2019, 21:50
Two wins now, then 5-6 in a row, then Lewis will be rattled, can suffer some unreliability, etc.
He needs to dominate early season, to the point of swaying parts of the team to him.
Rosberg did it once. So it is possible.
jpvalverde85 (@jpvalverde85)
14th November 2019, 22:58
A year long porridge supply? That’ll make ir unless old Lewis realizes that he could do it too!
Joao (@johnmilk)
15th November 2019, 0:25
I’m pretty sure kidnapping is ilegal everywhere in the world no?
Yaru (@yaru)
15th November 2019, 3:50
Bottas 3.0? 😁
eljueta (@eljueta)
15th November 2019, 6:24
Can’t wait for that thicc thicc beard