Valtteri Bottas has the belief he can beat Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes

23 February 2017 05:24

Valtteri Bottas has said he would "stay at home" if he did not think he could upset the odds and beat Lewis Hamilton to the Formula One world championship.

Bottas, the 27-year-old Finnish driver, will be Hamilton's closest challenger this season if Mercedes continue their dominant reign over the sport which has seen them win three consecutive driver and constructors' titles.

Only seven-time champion Michael Schumacher has toasted more race victories than Hamilton - who is bidding to win his fourth title this term - in the history of the sport. Bottas, with nearly 80 grands prix starts under his belt, is still searching for his first win.

"If I thought I couldn't compare or if I couldn't be quicker than Lewis than I would rather stay at home," said Bottas.

"It is never going to be easy to beat Lewis, that is a fact. But I have no special plan whatsoever other than to keep doing what I am doing and that is to improve every single day as a driver.

"It is a big learning curve for me, but I do believe in my skills and I do believe it is possible to beat him.

"I do need to go step-by-step, day-by-day and race-by-race and then we will find out. We will see on the track. The stopwatch does not lie."

Bottas, who joins Mercedes after four years with Williams, replaces world champion Nico Rosberg following his shock retirement from the sport in the days after he clinched last year's title.

Rosberg's relationship with Hamilton descended into chaos at times during the three years in which they went toe-to-toe for the title.

But Bottas, who joined Hamilton to unveil their new Mercedes at Silverstone on Thursday, does not foresee any such problems with his new team-mate.

"We haven't raced yet together in the same team but so far it has been good," Bottas added. "I see no reason why we couldn't be able to work professionally as a good pair of team-mates, race very hard on track, but fair and work well as a team.

"From my side I see no problem. We will find out but I have a good feeling that it will be fine."

Source: PA