At the end of the 2021 season, Lewis Hamilton and Valteri Bottas are no longer teammates at the Mercedes team.

Valtteri Bottas has always been Lewis Hamilton’s shadow since joining the Mercedes team in 2017. Photo: PlanetF1

For many years, the story of the relationship between Valterri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes team has become a hot topic in the F1 world. They themselves and members like team leader Toto Wolf have had to stand before the media many times to explain.

Back in October 2021, when Hamilton failed at the Turkish Grand Prix due to a 10-point penalty for changing the engine, Bottas started in the 1st position and finished first in the race for the first time that season. The British racer seemed very upset with his teammates and racing team.

For Hamilton personally, mistake followed mistake, because when entering the pits in round 51, the decision to change tires in rainy conditions led to an important turning point in the race to win the championship. Because meanwhile, Max Verstappen only finished behind Bottas but still maintained the leading position and created a gap of 6 points compared to Hamilton.

While half of the Mercedes team had to reconsider the decision they made, the other half celebrated the victory of Bottas, who had previously suffered in the Turkish Grand Prix. Hamilton also made angry statements with the implication that Bottas “opened the door for his opponent to advance to the championship”.

Experts believe that Hamilton hinted at his teammate’s fault, but after allowing Verstappen to increase the score gap to 19 after the Mexican Grand Prix, Hamilton posted on Instagram to explain his relationship with Bottas, saying, “We win or lose as a team, no one is responsible for winning or losing.”

However, experts have dug deeper into the fact that over the years, Bottas has always been Hamilton’s shadow, suggesting that there is some problem in their relationship. Nothing, why do you have to stand in front of the media to explain? That is the question.

Bottas joined the dominant F1 team after impressing with Williams, replacing Nico Rosberg. Bottas arrived and raised hopes of repeating the German driver’s feat and being able to beat teammate Hamilton throughout the season.

But that proved to be too much of a challenge, with the British rider dominating from then on. Despite Toto Wolff’s protestations that there is no such thing as a “second driver”, there have been a number of occasions during that time where Hamilton’s races and results were prioritized for the benefit of the team.

Bottas says he understands why, but that doesn’t make it any less painful for him to look back on what happened. “The thing is, there are some seasons where I start off quite strongly, then have unlucky moments, or maybe I have one or two bad races,” he admitted on F1’s Beyond podcast the Grid, “Lewis performs really consistently, every time”.

I want to be the best – I want to be a champion. So in a way I feel like a failure, that I wasn’t able to achieve that with Mercedes.”

Not only that, Bottas also lacks stability in the Mercedes team, signing a new contract every year instead of a longer-term commitment. And finally, the Finnish driver decided to part ways with Mercedes after that season.