While not quite throwing in the towel, Valtteri Bottas concedes Lewis Hamilton has been simply “better” in 2019.
The Briton fully capitalised on Mercedes’ dominance in the first 12 races of this season, winning six of the first eight races and finishing second to his teammate in Australia and Baku.
At this stage, the gap between the pair sits at 73 points ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, meaning it is quite plausible that Hamilton could wrap it up in Mexico for the third straight year.
“I haven’t thought, in a way, ‘that’s it’. I won’t think like that even though I know the facts, we need to be very lucky as well to still be in the fight for the title but obviously it’s not done yet,” Bottas was quoted by RaceFans at Suzuka.
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“I can for sure blame myself as well for being that far in the points, in this situation, because Lewis has been better so far more consistently. That’s how it is,” he suggested.
“Now in this situation in I just really [focus] on one weekend and the closer I get to the end we’ll find out what happens with the points and where I’ll finish, but at least it’s going better than last year at this point.”
For Bottas, it has been those tricky races where errors have proved costly particularly in Germany and Hungary before the summer break.
But as he noted, 2019 has at least seen progress compared to 2018 when he failed to win a race and ended the year 160 points behind Hamilton.
Of course, some will be quick to dismiss Lewis’ achievement of moving to within one of Michael Schumacher’s tally of seven F1 titles, pointing to the lack of competition he faced.
But Sebastian Vettel insists it would be “deserved” because after all, F1 is a team sport.
“No he does,” he said. “I think obviously Mercedes had the best car in the last couple of year and I think there are other drivers that could have had a very good chance at winning a championship.
“But it’s more than that and as much as I didn’t enjoy the years where he was winning, especially when we were fighting – not so much towards the end as I would have loved to – you have to appreciate the fact that it’s the combination.
“It’s not just Mercedes and it’s not just Lewis. It’s the combination of the two that have got to a point where they are very, very difficult to beat. Very consistent, very little errors.
“So that’s a credit to him and credit to the team so I don’t think you can separate the two. I think it’s fair to mention always the two of them.”