Bottas on contract pressure: 'It starts to eat you from inside'

Valtteri Bottas' entire F1 career with Mercedes has evolved around a succession of one-year contracts, and the Finn admits that the inevitable pressure that comes with an annual deal eventually "starts to eat you inside".

Bottas joined Mercedes in 2016 on a whim after reigning world champion Nico Rosberg's shock decision to retire from racing.

The Finn was awarded a one-year contract at the time which he readily accepted, a short-term deal that was extended at the end of each season until last summer, when Mercedes opted to bring into the team for 2022 its Williams protégé George Russell.

Circumstances and the annual unknowns linked to the drivers' market mainly dictated Mercedes' one-year contract policy towards Bottas, but the prospect of having to sit down every year with his management and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff to iron out another covenant - and the inevitable speculation and "noise" that the situation produced - was a strain that unavoidably took its toll in the end.

©Mercedes

"You obviously try to convince yourself that it’s not affecting you and you try to block any negative thoughts, but when there’s a lot of noise – which can happen in Formula 1 – for sure, it’s not helping," Bottas told F1's Tom Clarkson on the latest Beyond the Grid podcast.

"There is a distraction, but you try to minimise the distraction. Yes, I think there’s been a few times I’ve not really been in an easy situation with the contracts and with extra talk and noise.

"Toto thinks that pressure is good for me… I agree, pressure for a certain length of time is good and it can get more out of you, but if you have pressure contractually for nine years of your Formula 1 career, year by year, it starts to eat you from inside, you know?"

• Read also: Hamilton clears up post-race comments on Bottas and Perez

Next year, Bottas will move on to the next chapter of his F1 career when he joins Alfa Romeo Racing.

To date, the Finn's track record with Mercedes includes 10 wins, 56 podiums and 19 pole positions.

While a world title with the Brackley squad eluded the 32-year-old, mainly because of the outstanding talent of the driver sitting on the other side of the Mercedes garage, Bottas looks back on his achievements in the past six years with a justified sense of pride.

"I'm proud, and definitely knowing that I'm going to another team, I've had time to reflect every now and then on the situation because you know we've achieved some pretty special things together," says Bottas.

"Now four times, hopefully fifth in a row as a constructors' champion and you do need two good drivers for that.

"And if you look at me and Lewis [Hamilton] as team mates... the amount of points, wins and podiums we've got together, for me it's hard to name a better team.

"I can look in the mirror. I tried, I gave it everything I had."

©Mercedes

Although proud of his accomplishments and of his contributions to Mercedes' history in F1, the man from Nastola acknowledges the disappointment of missing out on a world crown.

"For sure, yes, because that's ultimately... since [I was] a kid, it's your goal, it's your dream," he said.

"It's been really, really strong in my mind, as a goal, and it's been a force that has kept me working hard. It's like every day, whatever I do for this sport it's because of that: I want to be the champion.

"So in a way, that kind of feels like a failure, that I haven't been able to achieve that with Mercedes, but I've tried everything. I've given it everything.

"It just wasn't meant to be…"

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