Why Bottas won't emulate Rosberg to beat Hamilton

Valtteri Bottas is under no illusions that he needs to do a better job in 2021.

As he heads into his fifth season as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate at Mercedes, ending the campaign with a few wins and pole positions, plus contributing to another constructors' title, will not cut it. He must do more.

With George Russell breathing down his neck after proving to Mercedes bosses at the Sakhir Grand Prix that he is ready for a full-time chance at the works outfit, Bottas finds himself battling for both success and his future. And, of course, the best way to guarantee his place would be a step up in form and winning the drivers' championship. Playing second fiddle simply is not an option. That's exactly why he feels that, after four campaigns where things haven't come together in the way he would have liked, it may be time to do things a bit differently.

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"I'm keen to explore something, you know," he tells this writer as we talk about his feelings on the challenge ahead. "I feel like maybe it's time to try something different. Of course, I always look forward to the future, and there will be opportunities. But, in this sport, there's not going to be a million opportunities.

"I know that I'm not going to have 15 seasons with Lewis to try to beat him. I know that I really need to try and do it next year."

But the desire to do things differently will not manifest itself in one direction that some have suggested Bottas head in.

Comparing how he has approached the challenge of racing against Hamilton to that of his predecessor Nico Rosberg, it's been often suggested that Bottas needs to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy.

The harmony between the current Mercedes drivers is in contrast to the friction that erupted between Rosberg and Hamilton during the seasons they were team-mates. As well as flash points on track, like the controversy over Monaco 2014 and the collisions they had, it was often remarked that one of Rosberg's successful tactics was getting under Hamilton's skin.

The mind games and tension it put within the camp may have been exhausting for Mercedes bosses at times, but for Rosberg it was viewed as a key factor in laying the platform for everything coming together in the right way during his title-winning 2016 campaign.

But it's not in Bottas' nature to play the bad boy. Indeed, he laughs off suggestions that there would be anything to gain from causing trouble - in fact, he thinks it could actually spectacularly backfire.

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"There's been many people suggest I change to be a Nico Rosberg. But I'm not a Nico Rosberg. I much prefer to do the talking on track and race fair" Valtteri Bottas

"I think that the strength we have in the team is definitely that we can work as a team," he says. "We can for sure race hard, but we can also leave it there. And we know the fact that if we can work together, that's how the team is going to benefit in the end. So there's not going to be any hiding of set-ups or data or anything. And the team spirit in team sports is underestimated. I think it's really important that you keep the motivation up, and [have] no conflicts.

"Of course, along the way, there's been many people suggest I change to be a Nico Rosberg. But I'm not a Nico Rosberg. I much prefer to do the talking on track and race fair. I have also been able to get to know Lewis, and I know that there's no benefit of trying to play with his mind. I'm sure it would be annoying for him, but it would be wasting my energy. And I think he will be getting even more pissed off and drive faster.

"So I think the way I'm doing things, that's how I want to win. That is my aim."

Bottas says the key to making the breakthrough against Hamilton will not come from ripping up everything he has done before and starting from a clean sheet of paper. Instead, it will be about incremental gains. That comes from ironing out those afternoons where he perhaps underperformed, finding more consistency, plus unleashing a tiny bit more pace - especially on Saturdays - to not leave Hamilton an open goal for grabbing pole position.

The answer to it all will come from data, and Bottas working methodically with his engineers to work out exactly what he needs to do - and in which areas he needs to focus on. And don't forget too the value of a winter reset.

"Of course, there's little things that you can process in your mind by yourself, but seeing the facts from the data, investigating and understanding them is important, too," he explains. "Small things can make a difference in the sport. So it's really analysing and learning and making sure that you can actually know how you can do it, instead of just knowing how you should do it. You need to know exactly how to do it better physically on track.

"And I always feel that when there's a bit of a break, that's normally when the biggest development and jump can happen. I think during the season can be quite tricky, because it's short breaks and race after race, with always different tracks, but during the winter, during the break, it feels like the human brain has more and more time to process things, so you can make big jumps."

Despite the clear focus on where he needs to improve, this is not to say that Bottas is behind in all areas compared to Hamilton. He was supremely strong on some Saturday afternoons last year; he proved time and again that he was better able to get quickly get up to speed each weekend (even if Hamilton had clawed it all back by Q3), and his race pace was a step up on what he had delivered previously. There were times, too, when Bottas had nailed the set-up early on and it was Hamilton who had to change tack in his bid to keep the fight going.

Ultimately, this is a case of Bottas needing to be at his best all the time, for the biggest challenge he faces is that he finds himself going up against perhaps the greatest F1 driver of all time in equal machinery. Coming out on top is not the work of a moment.

As Bottas concedes: "Lewis' strength is the ability to perform at a great level weekend after weekend, no matter what. Whatever weekend, he's there, and that makes him tough to beat. It only needs a tiny mistake from my side, and that's game over. That's his strength."

Yet, during all the time he has faced off against Hamilton, and pored through the world champion's data to try to seek answers for any performance deficit, there has never been anything that has especially mystified him or left him wary of feeling he cannot come out on top.

"There are times that I've struggled to understand how is that possible: whether it's a single corner, or whether it has been a stint on a certain track with a certain tyre compound," Bottas says. "But there's always reasons and we always dig for those reasons. The worst thing is to leave something that you don't understand. I know that the team has pretty smart engineers, so they can always dig out the reasons and give an explanation and tell me how I can try and match that or do better."

It was all too easy for many last year, after Bottas' disappointing showing against Russell at the Sakhir GP, to write off the Finn. After all, the minimum he should have been expected to deliver was to outpace his temporary team-mate.

"It's not an easy job. If you look at the numbers, Lewis is the most successful driver in F1 history, and I need to go up against him with decent speed and consistency weekend after weekend" Valtteri Bottas

But, as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff made clear, the weekend ultimately swung on small differences: with Russell getting a better start, and Bottas' charge in the second stint coming unstuck because of the safety car.

That performance, and the impact it had on Bottas, served to focus minds, however - and prompted some positive talks between driver and team boss Wolff about doing more to help support each other.

In the end, the decision on who Mercedes picks as its driver in 2022 will not be down to the public and fans: it will be down to Wolff himself. And the team principal knows full well just how big a challenge it is facing off against Hamilton weekend in, weekend out -and what sort of character is needed to take that task on. It's something Bottas feels that is perhaps not appreciated fully by everyone.

"I think the people who really properly understand the sport and, look at details, and think of things in other people's shoes or driver's shoes, I think they understand," he says. "But there's many, for sure, like, in any sport, there's always couch commentators who might underestimate things.

"From my side, I can say that it's not an easy job. If you look at the numbers, Lewis is the most successful driver in F1 history, and I need to go up against him with decent speed and consistency weekend after weekend. So yeah, it's not an easy place to be.

"But that really motivates me, and that's the goal for me to try and beat him. That will keep me going and that will keep me pushing myself again, hopefully to a next level."

And do those couch commentators he often refers to with 'whom it may concern' inspire him or annoy him?

"They really motivate me quite a lot," he smiles. "I've learned a lot from myself not to try and let those kind of things affect me. I try to avoid that negativity. But no matter what you do, there's always going to be negativity: sometimes less, sometimes more and it is the same with the criticism. But it's a motivation to prove people wrong. No doubt.

"And I think I've said it before: sometimes I just don't get why there is that kind of criticism. I guess there's always a reason. But I don't know that reason and again, I'm not in their position. So I've no idea what goes in their head..."

For now, Bottas is clear that focusing on himself to be the best he can be is the right answer for everything, including his long-term future.