Valtteri Bottas: For a while, I hated racing.

      Recently, Valtteri Bottas talked about how he starved himself at the beginning of his career, and now he recalls the period when he raced for Mercedes just as sincerely...

      Valtteri Bottas: "You know, for a while I hated racing. During the winter break before the 2019 season, I couldn't even imagine that I would come back.

      In 2018, I had to let Lewis Hamilton pass at the team's orders. You know how much I wanted to say 'no' back then? But I had to be a good teammate. I let him pass, and that year Lewis had a truly incredible season.

      Lewis and I are great friends, but Formula 1 is a crazy sport. On one hand, we all want to destroy each other. Each of us would do anything to improve our results by a millisecond. Everything to gain an advantage. But sometimes the management says that it's a team sport, that you need to slow down and give way.

      Lewis was the champion. I was his teammate. Toto Wolff called me the 'perfect teammate' back then. I still have mixed feelings about it. I don't know what to say when people ask me about it, as Lewis is an incredible driver and a good friend of mine. I hold no grudges against Mercedes, Toto, or anyone else. But this situation almost made me leave the sport. I was depressed.

      In the winter, I decided to end my career, but then I told myself, 'If you come back, then in the best shape.' I don't regret that I directly told them over the radio. But I'm not sure that people really understood what I meant. I said it not out of bitterness and disappointment; you could say that with that phrase I said goodbye to my past life and thanked everyone."