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Formula 1: Toto Wolff says Lewis Hamilton-Valtteri Bottas duo won’t deteriorate

By Asher Fair

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - APRIL 27: Pole position qualifier Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP celebrates with second place qualifier Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP in parc ferme during qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan at Baku City Circuit on April 27, 2019 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - APRIL 27: Pole position qualifier Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP celebrates with second place qualifier Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP in parc ferme during qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan at Baku City Circuit on April 27, 2019 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /
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Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport team principal and CEO Toto Wolff has stated that the team will not allow the partnership between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to deteriorate.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport team principal and CEO Toto Wolff has stated that the team will not allow the partnership between teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to deteriorate after the 2019 Formula 1 season has started out almost evenly for the two drivers.

Bottas and Hamilton have each won two of the season’s first four races, and they both finished in second place behind the other driver in the races which they did not win. In fact, Mercedes’ became the first team in Formula 1 history to start a season with four consecutive 1-2 finishes with their hot start to this season.

Bottas leads the driver standings by one point (87 to 86) over the 34-year-old Briton because of the fact that he recorded the fastest lap of the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, en route to winning it.

As a result, there has been talk of potential concern pertaining to whether or not the relationship between Hamilton and the 29-year-old Finn could deteriorate, much like his relationship with teammate Nico Rosberg deteriorated in the 2016 season when Rosberg finally gave Hamilton a true run for his money and won the championship after falling short in what were effectively two two-driver championship battles in the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

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Since the V6 turbo hybrid era began in the 2014 season, the lowest that a Mercedes driver had finished in the driver standings entering the 2017 season was second place, and the fewest amount of victories that one of the team’s drivers had earned in a single season was five.

Bottas set new lows in those categories in the 2017 season, which was his first season driving for the Silver Arrows.

In the 2017 season, Hamilton won the championship after earning nine victories in 20 races. Meanwhile, Bottas finished in third place in the driver standings with only three victories. Hamilton won the championship with 363 points while Bottas scored 305 points and also finished behind Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who scored 317 points and earned five victories.

But for the 29-year-old Finn, the 2018 season ended up being even worse than the 2017 season. Hamilton won the championship once again, this time by earning 11 victories in 21 races, while Bottas failed to win a single race and ended up finishing in fifth place in the driver standings. He finished 161 points behind Hamilton (408 to 247).

In the 2018 season, team orders even came into play to prioritize Hamilton over his teammate. They prevented Bottas from challenging Hamilton for the victory in the German Grand Prix, and they then forced him to relinquish the lead and thus the victory of the Russian Grand Prix to his teammate.

But in the 2019 season, things have been different. Bottas appears to be a legitimate championship contender, and he has demonstrated through the season’s first four races that he has everything it takes to, at the very least, be a thorn in the side of his five-time champion teammate.

However, Wolff does not see the relationship between Hamilton and Bottas deteriorating. In fact, he has stated that Mercedes will not allow that to happen.

Here is what Wolff had to say about the 2019 season and the potential of the partnership between Hamilton and Bottas deteriorating over the course of the season, according to Formula 1.

"“It reminds me a little bit of the situation [in 2014-2016, when Hamilton and Rosberg fought almost exclusively for the title]. You have two drivers that have the ambition and the ability to win a championship, and it’s up to us together with them to be very aware of that situation and remember that very quickly [Ferrari’s Sebastian] Vettel or [Charles] Leclerc could be back into the game and that definitely the relationship matters in order to avoid what we went through between Nico and Lewis.“We are lucky that they have a very good relationship. They get on with each other. There is not a lot of games in the background, and I am very happy about that. But we have to be conscious as we have seen a relationship deteriorate. Both of the drivers have an ambition to win the championship. We want them to be lions in the car, so you can’t expect the behaviour of a sheep. But equally the respect needs to stay in there.“We are very strong as a team and we wouldn’t allow a relationship between drivers to deteriorate to a point that it has a negative effect on the team. If that would ever be the case again, after Nico and Lewis, we will ensure we would issue yellow and red cards. But we are far, we are not there.”"

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Will the partnership between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas deteriorate as the 2019 Formula 1 season progresses? A total of 17 races remain on the 21-race 2019 schedule, the next of which being the Spanish Grand Prix. This race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 12, and it is set to be broadcast live on ESPN2 from Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya road course in Montmelo, Catalonia, Spain beginning at 9:10 a.m. ET.

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