In an end-of-season reshuffle, Mercedes will have George Russel replace Valtteri Bottas as Lewis Hamilton’s racing partner, and Hamilton had some things to say about all his former partners, including the outgoing Bottas.
The 36-year old defending champion revealed that with his current teammate, Bottas, they can actually have a heart to heart conversation in the engineering room, stating that it is a first for him. “This is the first time that I have had a teammate that we actually…really communicate,” Hamilton told Sky Italia.
The seven-time world champion admitted that he and Bottas are always trying to better one another without holding secrets despite competing against each other, and he (Hamilton) hasn’t done that with anyone else. “…never hiding of secrets…we want to beat each other, but we want to help each other be the better version, ” says part of his statement.
About which previous teammate challenged him most, the 2020 champion probably wasn’t sure. According to him, all his former racing partners had their own strong and weak points, and he was in a different state against each, so he only learnt as much as he could from them.
Lewis also admitted that it was unrealistic to beat all your teammates in every race. All were challenging and beat him some time, while also exchanging pointers. “You can never beat your team-mate all the time…there’s going to be mistakes,” he stated.
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Whatever relationship on or off-track he shared with them, though, the current F1 leader said he wouldn’t change it for anything, probably because those experiences molded him into who he is today. “I wouldn’t change it for the world…good or bad,” he swore.
