Hill: Bottas needs to find out how to 'pile pressure' on Hamilton
- Published on 25 Jul 2020 10:03
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- By: Coilin Higgins
1996 world champion Damon Hill has suggested Valtteri Bottas needs to figure out how to pile pressure on Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton if he is to beat him to the title this season.
Bottas had a confident start to the season, winning the opening race in Austria before finishing second in the Styrian Grand Prix. His third-place finish last weekend in Hungary now puts him just five points behind Hamilton as F1 returns to Silverstone in a week's time.
Since his move to Mercedes in 2013, Hamilton has won every title from 2014 to last year, with the exception of 2016 when he was beaten by then-teammate Nico Rosberg in a tense season-long battle.
Speaking recently on the F1 Nation podcast, Hill suggested that Bottas must focus less on being a team player for the team and more on beating Hamilton, possibly using mind-games like Rosberg resorted to during his championship-winning year.
Hill also noted how he thinks Bottas needs to find 'the next level' in order to become better than the reigning champion but explained that it can be difficult to find the means to become even stronger in the car.
"He just needs to find out how to pile pressure on Lewis,” Hill explained.
"If that means, I don’t know, doing psychological stuff that Nico alluded to, to make Lewis lose his equilibrium, maybe he has to do that.
“It’s finding a way to unlock that next level. I don’t know if you can psychologically unlock the next level - I think every driver’s got it but it’s accessing it.
“People like Lewis can get there. They might even have another level that they haven’t even been to themselves yet, that’s the worrying thing!
“I don’t know whether Lewis has actually been pushed that hard sometimes. I don’t know about Valtteri, but he’s got to find something, [some] inspiration from somewhere."
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Replies (10)
Login to replyPistonhead
Posts: 556
It’s a tough one, Rosberg quit after what it took out of him and he was a lot harder racer than Bottas. Nah, I’ve said it before, Bottas needs to be ‘less nice’ - he needs to adapt and become someone that you fear crossing, as he will bite....I’m not sure that’s an easy thing to do.
Dert38
Posts: 376
It's actually trolling as britts are big fans of Ham. Which pressure? Lmao xD. Bottas just not good enough. That's it. Like Dovizioso or Vettel. They just happy to have their place. 1-2 (even 3 bottas loses to tier 2 car lmao) will be most boring this season. Let's watch 3-4-5-6-7-8 etc...
Pistonhead
Posts: 556
@Dert38
Yep, the performance gap alone means it is difficult to see the mercy being consistently beaten - that said, we've seen good racing in the field and I dont think it's been boring at all, quite enjoying it really.
Manto02
Posts: 93
There is still people that believe bottas would be able to beat Hamilton? Come on
essaouira311
Posts: 158
There is still people that believe anyone would be able to beat Hamilton? Come on
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
nono, there are people that could beat him, but given current conditions they likely won't.n
essaouira311
Posts: 158
@calle.itw Of course there are and there will be people who can beat Lewis.
But we are talking about the "current conditions".
Besides, that's the only thing we can talk about...
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
oh no, I love talking of alternative scenarios, being both a labrat AND a dreamer, but the current is what matters. :)
essaouira311
Posts: 158
@calle.itw
Hehe.... Maybe it's because you're still very young!
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Oh essa you know how to flatter me! :3