Why Valtteri Bottas hopes Lewis Hamilton will ‘bounce back’ at Ferrari

Valtteri Bottas hopes Lewis Hamilton gets it right at Ferrari as he says the seven-time World Champion “deserves” to get good results.

Heading into his final stint, perhaps even final contract, in Formula 1, Hamilton has found his move to Ferrari more difficult than expected with the Briton struggling to adapt to not only the Ferrari F1 car, but also the Maranello team’s engine.

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Signs of promise, such as his lights-to-flag win in the Chinese Sprint, have been followed by steps backwards leading to a mid-season slump that had Hamilton declaring Ferrari should “change” drivers as he was “unless”.

But rebounding after the summer break, even though he did crash out of the Dutch Grand Prix, has seen a more positive attitude from Hamilton.

So much so, the Briton took to social media after his P8 at the Singapore Grand Prix to issue a rally cry, saying: “I’m really proud of this team and want to help deliver the results they and the tifosi deserve.

“I see the progress we are making, and the hard work that goes into every race, but this is Ferrari. Progress alone is not enough. To achieve greatness we need to go further, be better.

“There is so much we can achieve together, and if we can build on our successes, and change the things we need to, I fully believe we will get there.”

But whether that progress will yield a grand prix win this season, or even a debut podium in red for the 40-year-old, remains to be seen.

Hamilton and Ferrari are more likely pinning their hopes on F1 2026 when all-new cars and engines reset the pecking order.

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One person hoping the Briton gets it right is his former Mercedes teammate, Bottas.

“I hope he will bounce back. But time will show if he will,” Bottas told Crash.net. “He’s had some good moments, a bit of bad luck as well.

“But it’s tricky. It’s not easy changing a team after such a long time at Mercedes, being kind of the lead man.

“It’s a very different environment that he’s working with now. I can’t really say much more than say time will show if things go better or not.

“But I really hope so because I think he deserves still great results in this sport.”

Hamilton missed out on a record-breaking eighth World title in his and Bottas’ final season as Mercedes teammates when the Briton lost to Max Verstappen at the 2021 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hamilton finished eight points down on the Red Bull driver.

He’s hoping that next season’s reset yields title number eight as he seeks Ferrari’s first Drivers’ title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2008.

“If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they’ve had amazing drivers,” Hamilton said earlier this year. “You’ve had Kimi, you’ve had Fernando, you’ve had Sebastian – all world champions.

“However, they didn’t win a world championship. For me, I refuse for that to be the case with me. So, I’m going the extra mile. I’ve obviously been very fortunate to have had experiences in two other great teams.

“Whilst things are for sure going to be different, because there’s a different culture and everything, I think sometimes if you take the same path all the time, you get the same result.”

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