Lewis Hamilton does think Valtteri Bottas having a new race engineer has impacted his performance in 2019.
The Finn’s former man in his ear, Tony Ross, switched over to Mercedes’ Formula E project this year, in preparation of their entry into the series for Season 6.
That resulted in Riccardo Musconi, Hamilton’s former performance engineer, moving across the garage to take over on the pit-wall.
“Valtteri seems more focused [this year],” the world champion noted in the Daily Mail.
“He has the new engineer and is following some of my settings – that is a move in the right direction. (Having the new engineer) is a nice helping hand.”
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Also, having said on Thursday there was no chance of him and Bottas repeating the kind animosity he had with Nico Rosberg in 2016, Hamilton did indicate he could become less co-operative.
“I will be respectful and we are not going to be touching, but as far as giving up position is concerned that will not happen again,” he stated.
