Valtteri Bottas hopes to use the positives from his late-season form to come back stronger in 2020 after a bittersweet United States GP.
The Finn would claim a second victory in three races at the Circuit of the Americas, as a two-stop strategy allowed him to reel in Lewis Hamilton and pass his teammate with five laps to go.
However, it would not be enough to deny the Briton his sixth Formula 1 championship and while that outcome was largely inevitable, he admits it took some shine off his latest win.
“This weekend, winning it was the only thing I could do to try and maintain the title hopes and delay Lewis,” he told reporters post-race.
“Obviously I did my part, which feels good, but Lewis was strong this weekend, as he always is, so he got some solid points and got the championship.
“I’ve got mixed feelings, really. As an individual weekend, it was strong but then, on the other hand, I felt this year being best of the rest it doesn’t feel good.
“But it always needs positives as well, you know, It’s my best season in Formula 1 so far, so that’s good, and looking at other positives, I’ve made huge gains in many areas, in terms of race pace and everything.
“But yeah, winning the race this way, Lewis still… I’m sure he really wanted to win this race, to win the title by winning the race, I could stop that and that feels good, obviously, but I just look forward to next year – it’s a new opportunity.”
The real turning point in the title battle came between Canada and Hungary with some difficult races as Bottas didn’t build on the momentum of two wins in the first four Grands Prix.
But he is confident that maintaining a title challenge against Hamilton is something he can do next year.
“Overall I think there were a few mistakes, for sure, from my side I should have been able to avoid,” he admitted to ESPN summarising his season.
“There were a couple at race starts, at least some of them were mistakes, some were maybe unlucky moments but they made me learn. Then a couple of qualifyings I messed up in Q3, definitely, which cost me starting position for the race and compromised the race and I lost points because of that.
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“Otherwise, I don’t know, luck, bad luck whatever has been pretty even for me and Lewis overall, so he’s just been on a great level again this year, every single race, and I’ve not been able to be at my very, very best every single race, but much more often than ever before.
“The direction is clear for me in terms of my development, overall. There is good momentum now and in terms of race pace, which has been my weakness in the years before, I’ve made huge gains by working really hard with the engineers, you know, every single detail of my driving and set-up.
“That’s getting better and that gives me real confidence for next year and, unlike at the end of last year, now I really look forward to the year ahead, and I’m already excited to start the next season and start from fresh. So that’s going to be good fun.”