Formula 1 is perhaps the only sport in the world where the term ‘teammate’ has a completely opposite meaning to its general definition. In most sports, an athlete relies on his teammate. However, as we all know, in F1, it’s quite the opposite. A teammate in F1 is every driver’s first opponent, the benchmark, the first guy to beat and the first guy a driver is compared against. So whenever a driver is paired against a world champion, their life becomes a living hell. This scenario has been prevalent throughout the sport’s history. However, according to Lewis Hamilton, this aspect is being blown out of proportion by the media highlighting the difference between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

The Brit, while speaking to Sky Sports F1, as quoted by F1 Maximaal, expressed his annoyance at this media hype created around Verstappen. The Mercedes man believes he doesn’t get enough credit for beating his teammates, something he started doing during his rookie season. On the other hand, Verstappen is receiving all the plaudits after every race for outperforming Perez.

“I was thinking about it this morning while running. The story in the media is always that if I qualified half a second or six-tenths ahead of Valtteri, they didn’t say the same thing as what is being said now when Max qualifies six-tenths ahead of Sergio Pérez. It gets blown up a lot more,” said Hamilton. (Translated via Google)

Lewis Hamilton & Max Verstappen Left in Splits as “Little Doll” Valtteri Bottas Grabs Limelight for “Cute” Reasons

Valtteri Bottas will also agree with his former teammate. The Finn has even expressed his high praise for Hamilton’s relentless approach and exceptional driving in the past.

However, this brilliance once pushed Bottas to the brink of an early exit from F1.

Valtteri Bottas reveals how the brilliance of Lewis Hamilton once pushed him to quit

Bottas and Hamilton have enjoyed one of the most successful periods by a driver pairing ever in the sport’s history. Their contribution to Mercedes’ five championships will not be forgotten anytime soon. However, during those dominant years, Bottas was always playing second fiddle and could not cope with being beaten by his teammate on every occasion with the same machinery.

Hamilton’s dominance on Bottas got to a point where the Finn was contemplating retirement and quitting the sport for the sake of his mental health.

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When asked if he would’ve retired from the sport despite a contract with Mercedes, Bottas replied, “Yes, absolutely!” He added, “Human mind is strange in a way that sometimes you go into dark places and you lose the joy in things and I just completely lost the joy of F1 and racing in F1.”

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However, the Finn settled his nerves and got back to winning ways in the subsequent seasons. All it took was acceptance and a little mental fortitude to beat Hamilton in a few races and Bottas we know and love is still part of the circus.