Bottas relieved about leaving Mercedes: 'Negative pressure'

Valtteri Bottas left Mercedes last season and found a new challenge at Alfa Romeo. Speaking to Sport1, the Finnish driver, who is in excellent form this season, stated that he still does not miss his old team.

Nico Rosberg decided to retire from Formula 1 immediately after winning the 2016 world title, after which Mercedes recruited Bottas. However, the latter driver was unable to compete with Lewis Hamilton, leading to increasing criticism of his performance each year.

Bottas noticed that the pressure he faced made for an unpleasant situation. The current Alfa Romeo driver argues that the expectations had a negative effect on his results, of which he is actually not suffering this season.

"Because I can work here without feeling negative pressure," Bottas says. "For five years I faced mega pressure at Mercedes. The last few years I only had a one-year contract and never knew if it would stay there. That's tiring."

The Finnish driver agrees that he never showed this to the outside world. "Of course I didn't. But in such a situation you can't just switch off and mentally recharge, and concentrate fully on the actual work of driving."