Bottas will ‘try to beat’ Hamilton next year

Jamie Woodhouse 15 Nov 2020 4:40 PM

The 2020 title fight ended in disastrous fashion from Valtteri Bottas’ perspective, but he will try again next year.

While Lewis Hamilton delivered a wet-weather masterclass at the Turkish Grand Prix similar to Silverstone 2008 to go from P6 to victory, winning a record-equalling seventh World Championship, Bottas was more like the Felipe Massa of Silverstone 08.

Bottas would spin at the first corner on the opening lap before soon after hitting Esteban Ocon, sending himself into another spin.

Several more followed as Bottas ended up being lapped by Hamilton, and crossed the line a lowly P14.

On a weekend where Bottas needed to outscore Hamilton by eight points to stay in the title fight, instead he didn’t even get close to a single point while Hamilton pulled off one of the best races of his career.

So, all the Finn can do is try again next year.

“That was a long race, such a long day,” he told Sky F1 after the Turkish Grand Prix.

“Obviously, the first lap everything went wrong. I don’t know if it was Daniel or someone in the first corner spinning and I was avoiding them and spun as well.

“I had a contact in Turn 9 and the car was not the same anymore and I struggled to stay on track. I couldn’t stay on track. The steering wheel was like this and there was a piece missing from the front wing. It was a survival and not good.

“He [Hamilton] deserves it fully. He was the better of us this year overall on average. He fully deserves it so really good for him but I will try to beat him next year.”

"Might as well try something different!" 📻 VB boxes for the Inters. KEY to get the timing of this tyre transition right. pic.twitter.com/1GUS0qcF1E

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) November 15, 2020