Lewis Hamilton: Valtteri Bottas working with Mercedes to match F1 champion's racing

Valtteri Bottas

Bottas working with Mercedes to match Hamilton's racing

Monza showed the differences between them.

Matthew Scott

Friday 20 September 2019 11:30

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Valtteri Bottas says he has begun work with Mercedes to understand how he can match Lewis Hamilton's wheel-to-wheel ability when racing.

Hamilton chased Charles Leclerc lap after lap at the Italian Grand Prix, but was unable to make it through on several attacks as the Ferrari was just too quick in a straight line.

After Hamilton went off-track late in the race, Bottas took up the mantle, but made an error at the same spot at the first occasion he got onto Leclerc's gearbox.

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff pointed out the difference between his drivers post-race, and it has seemingly been brought up as a key area Bottas must improve on.

Bottas said: "There are some occasions Lewis has done a better job on following another car and getting close quicker, and being able to attack, and looking at all the things I can learn from that, looking at videos from the past, different race situations.

"Honestly, I feel there was no way to win at Monza with the difference we had, straight-line difference. My tyres were dropping at the end.

"Now looking back and analysing everything, for sure it's an area I still can improve and it's one of the strengths of Lewis'."

Bottas was given a new race engineer for 2019, and the Finn says he is now comfortable with his engineering team to push for even better results.

He said: "In this sport there's so many details and things you can improve if you invest your time into that.

"If I want to beat Lewis for the whole season I definitely have to dig as deep as I can to not leave any stone unturned, I'm ready for that.

"We have a good spirit now with the engineers on my side of the garage, we're very united for me to find those gains, step by step, and find those improvements.

"They're motivated to help me and we've found a nice way of working now and hopefully that will bring results in the near future."