Bottas: No point in giving up on F1 title

Valtteri Bottas says he won’t give up in the Formula 1 world title fight until it is mathematically impossible for him to claim the championship despite the huge points deficit he faces to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

After trading results over the Belgian and Italian rounds, taking a second place and third place each, Hamilton was still able to stretch out his lead by an extra point thanks to setting the fastest lap of the race in Monza.

With the gap now at 63 points with just seven rounds to go in 2019, Hamilton looks odds-on to clinch a sixth F1 world title which Bottas openly concedes already looks “a long shot” for him to overhaul his teammate in the championship.

But the Finn remains defiant in fighting for the F1 world championship as it remains possible on points despite admitting he needs “crazy things” to beat Hamilton in the standings.

“Well there’s no point ever giving up when there’s still statistics to say it’s possible,” Bottas said. “Obviously it’s a bit of a long shot, honestly, if you’re realistic with the way Lewis is performing and the consistency he’s having. But obviously you never know.

“This is F1, we’ve seen crazy things happening so there’s no point giving up.

“I just focus as an individual, my best performance I can and for us, as a team, to keep those improvements coming, that we are doing together and by the end of the year we will see, but there’s no point in giving up.

“I think we tried everything we could [in the Italian GP] and it felt like we maximised everything with the strategy and all – but just not quite enough.”

At Monza Bottas finished ahead of Hamilton for the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix, a run of five races, while the Finn has only finished in front of the British driver in three out 14 F1 rounds this season.