Valtteri Bottas has drawn on his experience partnering a Formula 1 World Champion to advise Sergio Perez on ensuring he doesn’t end up in a “downward spiral” at Red Bull.
Prior to making the switch to Sauber last year, Bottas drove alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes and the pair combined to deliver the team five successive Constructors’ titles.
However, the Finn failed to trouble Hamilton at any stage, with a 58-point deficit in his debut season with the Brackley-based squad in 2017 the closest he came to the Briton.
Despite those crushing defeats, Bottas insists that he continues to head into each race weekend believing that he can have the edge on any driver if he performs at his best.
Detailing the Mercedes environment and how he coped with being asked to relinquish position to Hamilton, Bottas told Motorsport Magazin: “I don’t really think about that.
“It was just at that moment when I had to accept it. It was the last year together with Lewis. In each of the five years, I couldn’t finish ahead of him on average.
“I think it was his peak when he had great performances. But today I don’t think it has changed anything. I still go to the races with good confidence and feel like I can beat anyone on a good day.”
Meanwhile, Perez endured a torrid 2023 season that saw him trail a sizeable 290 points behind Max Verstappen, who claimed 19 wins to his team-mate’s tally of two.
Both of the Mexican’s victories arrived in the opening four rounds before a crash early in qualifying at Monaco commenced a torrid run of five consecutive absences from Q3.
Bottas has drawn comparisons between his time at Mercedes and Perez’s current predicament, warning the Red Bull driver that he must trust that he can topple Verstappen.
“You have to have this attitude [that you can beat anyone],” Bottas added. “You can’t go into a race weekend and tell yourself you can’t beat him. You would have already lost.
“In this sense, it is a sport in which you always have to have good self-confidence and convince yourself. If you don’t have that trust, you’ll end up in a difficult downward spiral. You can see that on the stopwatch and the consistency.
“I would say, looking at what Checo is going through, he’s definitely lacking some trust. And you can see that in the results.”
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