Hamilton about Bottas: 'It's never easy to have a strong teammate'.

Valtteri Bottas regularly came under fire in 2020. The Mercedes driver struggled to compete and was linked with being dropped from the team in favour of George Russell. Lewis Hamilton, however, does not agree.

Qualifying is exciting

Bottas and Hamilton were teammates at Mercedes for the fourth season in a row. Of those four years Hamilton dominated Bottas every year. Last season the Brit won eleven races out of the sixteen he started, while Bottas only won twice.

"I don't think Valtteri needs to defend his performance, and I don't feel like I need to," said Hamilton in conversation with Autosport.com. "I think he's continued to work at it, and we've definitely had very, very close qualifyings, particularly this year."

Bottas will take more steps

"Like I said before, it's never easy having strong team-mates. It's a constant battle between you, both mentally and emotionally throughout the year," Hamilton continues. Despite fighting hard on the track, the seven-time world champion says his relationship with the Finn is good.

"I know next year he is going to be taking more steps, so I've got to work a way and figure out how I can find some more speed for next year," concludes Hamilton.