Bottas’ mental strength being tested by “tricky” start to F1 2021

Bottas has endured his worst start to a season since moving to Mercedes in 2017, with just 47 points to his name.

He sits sixth in the drivers’ championship, behind McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

His tough start to the season hasn’t been entirely his fault as a botched pit stop cost him an easy podium in Monaco, while a collision with George Russell at Imola ruined his chances of a top ten finish.

Bottas struggled for pace throughout the whole Azerbaijan Grand Prix, coming home in 12th place having started from tenth.

Speaking ahead of the Baku weekend, Bottas said: “I think with my tricky start of the season my mental strength has been tested, it hasn’t been the easiest ride to start with, in the last few races having two DNF’s so I would say there's been setbacks, and it's all about how you bounce back from those and how you, move forward, because you know the losers’ option, is to give up. 

“And it's not something I'm going to do, so I'm still keeping very strong, strong mentally and knowing that it's a long, long season ahead and for sure many good battles to come and, hopefully many wins so I have full belief in myself and for us as a team that we still have time to do good things.”

Despite the latest rumours suggesting Bottas is on his way out of Mercedes, he insists he loves driving for the team and in F1 as much as he did in previous years.

“I really, really love it and I still enjoy it as much as I did in example first year with Mercedes, no doubt,” Bottas added.

“But if I look at the big picture, for sure I still have a good few years in me. I feel like, year by year, I keep improving in certain areas and keep getting better and, you know, I'm quite far from the oldest drivers on the grid, so in theory, I still have time and I don't know what the future holds and I already try to take a weekend by weekend, and, you know, see what comes.”