Former team-mate Bottas on Hamilton: "You should never write Lewis off"

Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton drove exactly 100 races side by side as team-mates at Mercedes from 2017 to 2021. Bottas has since joined F1 newcomer Cadillac, while Hamilton switched to Ferrari last season. Hamilton took his first victory in red with the Scuderia in Barcelona. It is his first GP win since Belgium 2024, almost two years ago.

Bottas delighted with Hamilton's victory

After the Barcelona GP, Bottas was delighted with his former team-mate's success: "It's great to see! He really seems to be back on top form. They drove a great strategy. Yes, they were lucky with the virtual safety car, but the lead he pulled out would have been enough anyway in my opinion. So it's definitely nice to see."

Bottas: "At the end of the day, he is Lewis"

Bottas and Hamilton had an excellent relationship during their time together at Mercedes. Bottas on his mate Hamilton: "I always knew that you should never write him off. At the end of the day, he is Lewis. He still has the most victories and world championship titles. So it's not as if his ability simply disappears within a year." With his victory in Barcelona, Hamilton surpassed his own record and now stands at 106 GP victories.

Another retirement for Bottas

For Valtteri Bottas, on the other hand, the Barcelona race ended unhappily. He had to retire with a problem with his car. Bottas on the cause: "We are still investigating it." Things were actually still going well for the Finn at the start of the race weekend: "The weekend started well. I was pretty happy on Friday. We had a nice, smooth weekend ahead of us, the car felt 100 per cent good. But that kind of fell apart with the first problem we had in the third free practice session."

Bottas was already unable to finish races in Monaco: "It's now two retirements in a row, which is not ideal. It seems like reliability is still a big issue for us. It doesn't matter how fast the car is if you can't finish the race."