“In such a situation you can’t just switch off and mentally recharge,” – Valtteri Bottas glad to have left Mercedes after facing “mega pressure” for five years
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Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas, the Finnish driver, is doing his trade for the Alfa Romeo team this season and has indicated that he does not miss his previous employers even a tiny bit.
Valtteri Bottas spent five years with the Brackley-based Mercedes team and believes that his decision to switch to Alfa Romeo was the right one as far as his career is concerned.
The 33-year-old was presented with the opportunity at Mercedes in 2017 when Nico Rosberg decided to call it quits after winning the 2016 World Championship. However, the five years that Bottas spent on the team alongside Lewis Hamilton were full of criticism for not being able to match the prolific Brit.
Bottas during his time at the Silver Arrows was only on a few occasions able to match the class of Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel of a dominant livery, and for this reason, was always under the eyes of the critics.
However, with him moving base to Alfa Romeo for 2022, Bottas is finally happy with getting out of the shadow of the former 7-time World Champion and considers himself a leader on the Ferrar-sister team.
Valtteri Bottas feels that expectations at Mercedes hurt his performances
Mercedes is considered one of the heavy hitters in F1, and with the added pedigree, comes huge pressure that Valtteri Bottas was able to experience firsthand during his time with the German team.
Moreover, he has revealed that the extra pressure at Mercedes had a negative impact on him and while stressing about it said, “Because I can work here without feeling negative pressure, for five years I faced mega pressure at Mercedes. For the last few years, I only had a one-year contract and never knew if it would stay there. That’s tiring.”
Bottas has admitted that he never let the World in on the huge pressure he faced at Mercedes day in and day out and while talking about it, added, “Of course, I didn’t. But in such a situation you can’t just switch off and mentally recharge, and concentrate fully on the actual work of driving.”
Valtteri Bottas feels it was extremely difficult for him to perform consistently on the Mercedes team because of the pressure that he was under, and sees it as one of the main reasons for attracting quite a lot of criticism.
However, with him switching to Alfa Romeo, the Finnish driver has had a strong season and has worked well within the capabilities of the package that he has got. Bottas after 16 rounds, has got 46 points to show for his efforts.
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)