Bottas: 'Hamilton (not Verstappen) still the quickest driver in F1'

For years, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas formed a duo at Mercedes. With the Finn by his side, Hamilton became four consecutive world champion. Apart from a single victory, Bottas was no match for his teammate.

Meanwhile, Bottas is with Alfa Romeo, with whom he is having an extremely difficult season. These days, the veteran is competing for a spot in the broad midfield, rather than the top prizes. Just like his former teammate, as Hamilton's Mercedes currently cannot match Red Bull Racing's dominant car. Although performance is not there as it once was, Bottas believes Hamilton is still performing on an exceptional level.

'Irritably talented'

In an episode of Beyond the Grid, Formula 1's podcast, Bottas discusses who is currently the best. F1' s official website quotes from its own podcast that Hamilton is 'still the quickest driver on the grid'. Asked what made the seven-time world champion so good, Bottas replied: "Well, first of all, he’s annoyingly talented! On top of that, he works way harder than people actually think outside the race weekends."

Bottas continued: "And in the race weekends, he’s often the last person to leave from the paddock. It's just that combination and he's got big drive inside him to always deliver and do well. His average baseline performance is so good and then he's really consistent as well. It makes him hard to beat. When I could beat him, that was obviously a good day.”