Bottas asses the Verstappen/Hamilton rivalry: "Didn't see anything weird"

Valtteri Bottas took his first win of the season in Turkey two weeks ago. The Mercedes driver had little to fear from Max Verstappen, as his W12 was supreme. However, the Finnish driver disputes that his German employer has made significant updates recently.

In Russia, Mercedes was also so dominant and since the GP at Silverstone, the engine has been impossible to keep up with. Honda can't match it and so Verstappen and Sergio Perez came up some fifteen kilometres per hour short on the straights at Istanbul Park.

"I don't feel there have been big steps made by us. We stopped development early and we had the same car for a few races," said Bottas, who does have an explanation for why they were so much faster than the RB16B: "It depends on the track."

Bottas on Max vs Lewis

At Formula1.nl the driver, who will race for Alfa Romeo Racing next season, also discusses the tensions between Verstappen and his teammate Lewis Hamilton. "Thinking back to Turkey, I saw them talking and it looked pretty good actually. No different than usual. We are here to compete and then you don't have to be friends, sometimes because of the adrenaline of a race you might come across as angry or something. But I didn't see anything weird, really."