Valtteri Bottas has revealed it was only in his last season as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate that he accepted the Briton was the “better driver”. Bottas joined Mercedes in 2017, promoted up the order after the shock retirement of Hamilton’s championship-winning team-mate Nico Rosberg. The German called time on his career after beating Hamilton to the 2016 title in what was a ferocious and vicious battle, saying he didn’t have the energy to do it all again. Bottas went into his time at Mercedes believing he too could fight Hamilton for the Drivers’ titles. But even with the arrival of ‘Bottas 2.0’, 3.0 and so on, he was at the end of the day the “sensational wingman” as his team-mate wrapped up one title after another. It was, Bottas admits, an “exhausting” time. PlanetF1 recommends Valtteri Bottas reveals F1 ‘training to pain’ sparked an eating disorder Toto Wolff on why it was the right time for Valtteri Bottas to leave Mercedes Five prestigious records held by … [Read more...] about Valtteri Bottas admits his five seasons trying to beat Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes were ‘exhausting’