Bottas Aware that His Career is on Thin Ice

Valtteri Bottas has vowed to adopt a “drive it like he stole it” attitude in Formula 1 next year in a bid to bounce back from a difficult 2018 campaign.

Having ended this year without a win, Bottas openly said that the season has been his most disappointing in grand prix racing.

And although well aware that he will be fighting for his F1 future next season, with Esteban Ocon chasing his seat for 2020, Bottas says his plan is to go on an all-out attack to prove how good he is.

“This sport is funny, you never know what happens in the future,” said the Finn. “But I think the right mentality for me to approach next year is like I have nothing to lose.

“I just want to go for it and drive like I stole it, like it’s my last race, last day ever. So, yeah, I think that’s it. That’s a good plan.”

Although Bottas’ season fell below expectations in terms of results, he says there are some positives that have come out of the campaign.

“I think the fact is, as a team, what we’ve analysed and what we spoke with the guys, qualifying pace and race pace, compared to my teammate, has been better this year on average, which is positive, but the results haven’t.

“So all those things, we need to analyse why the results weren’t there. Obviously sometimes it was unlucky, sometimes were different reasons. But… yeah, I think performance-wise this year was better, but results-wise last year was better.”

Bottas is adamant, however, that he has never lost the belief that he has the speed to be able to beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

“In this sport, when you’re kind of sometimes thinking of yourself, you’re thinking all kind of different things,” he said. “The main thing is always the thought that I’ve got to be the strongest, and I’ve never told myself that I’m not good enough to do this.

“So… and I still believe so, even though I feel disappointed for the season, I know that I can do much more than what this season proves, and that is the main thing.”