Bottas wants ‘multiple years’ to reach title target

Mark Scott
A serious Valtteri Bottas

A serious Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas has said he wants to continue in Formula 1 for “multiple years” to realise his World Championship title dreams.

After replacing the retired 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, Bottas has had three cracks at trying to topple his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who is now a six-time World Champ.

His first season at the Silver Arrows saw him collect three race wins on his way to a P3 finish in the overall standings, but a winless 2018 campaign resulted in a fall back to P5.

2019 was Bottas’ strongest year yet with four wins and 15 podiums, enough to finish runner up behind Hamilton, but the Finn is after more years at the very top to try and achieve his childhood dreams.

“Always when you can’t do the things you would like to do it makes you appreciate it more, which is a shame, and I’m sure we can learn from this,” Bottas said in Mercedes’ latest ‘Deep Dive’ episode on YouTube.

“I’m sure many people now in this situation have had things in the mind they would love to do, but they can’t . “Maybe when things are back to normal, a good lesson for all of us will be to appreciate the things we are able to do in everyday life.

“I really want to continue for multiple years because I want to reach my targets. I really enjoy it, I love it. I miss F1.

“Since a kid, I’ve had this target in my career to be a world champion, and obviously I still haven’t achieved it, so that keeps me going, and that keeps me motivated.

“Every single year that makes me want to do everything better than I’ve done before. Okay, you can’t always get there. There are always ups and downs in your career, but those downs you need to turn into a strength.

“I think now, within myself, how things are in my life, and also in terms of my driving, and how we are working with the team, we’ve definitely found the right path, and I really feel the improvements at the moment. That’s why I’m eager to get driving.”

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