Hamilton defends Bottas: "Not easy being my teammate"

Amidst the jokes about the racing skills of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas both this season and last, teammate Lewis Hamilton has now expressed his opinion of the Finn. His opinion? We are too hard on Bottas.

In a press conference today, Hamilton answered the question of how he explains the huge difference in points between him and his teammate this season. As quoted by Motorsport.com, Hamilton explains this difference in two ways. "Valtteri has been unfortunate this year with the reliability issues, so it makes it [the points gap] look even bigger than it is."

In addition, the difference has to do with consistency of performance, analyzes the Brit. "In race trim, naturally, you can see obviously the consistency that I've had this year has [been] really what's made the difference.”

This difference in consistency is mainly seen during the race, Hamilton explains, because during qualifying the differences between the two are much smaller. “If you look at a lot of the qualifying [sessions], it was the smallest of margins. So closing the gap in qualifying, he has done already, which has made it quite challenging,” Hamilton said.

In addition, Hamilton is full of praise for his teammate, especially as he can imagine it isn't easy having to drive alongside a living legend: "It's not easy being my teammate. But he comes in weekend in, weekend out, with just the same mentality. He's never moaning, complaining that something is wrong with the car. It's always just: 'I've got to do a better job.’” Hamilton continues.