Bottas rules out using Rosberg tactics in Hamilton battle

Valtteri Bottas has ruled out following Nico Rosberg's lead and seeking psychological help as he tackles Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the 2019 drivers' title.

Rosberg recently revealed that his 2016 triumph at the expense of Hamilton came with two hours per day of work with a psychologist.

Bottas fell to 39 points behind Hamilton after the British Grand Prix fell out of his hands in unfortunate circumstances.

But the Finn believes he is mentally tough enough to cope with the strain of battling Hamilton on his own.

"I don't think it would work for me," he said. "Every athlete and every person is individual. Some need some outside support. I have plenty of good people around me I can talk to.

"For me it's the man in the mirror that gives the answers if I had hard times or doubts and so on. I solve that with myself usually. I don't really see a gain in that at the moment.

"It is pretty individual. If you look at many other sports, many people use psychologists all the time and get some good help from that, but some not at all.

"I'm not Nico, you know, I'm Valtteri, and I know what works best for me."

Bottas says he has not sought out Rosberg for advice since replacing him in 2017, adding: "I haven't really spoken about that with him. I am prepared to follow my own way.

"For sure from outside you can't see very much whatever he did. Let's see. Some of the things I keep to myself. No plans at the moment to have a chat about that.

"Like I said before every person is completely individual and different and needs different things to perform well. Different mindsets."

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