Bottas rules out Rosberg-like tactics to beat Hamilton

Valtteri Bottas has ruled out following Nico Rosberg’s approach in using a sports psychologist in his bid to overcome Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg beat Hamilton to the 2016 title before announcing his retirement from the sport just days after claiming his maiden world championship. Since quitting F1, the German has revealed he visited a psychologist to help him cope with the pressure during his title battle against Hamilton.

But Bottas, who trails Hamilton in the 2019 standings by 39 points heading into this weekend’s German Grand Prix, has refused to resort to similar tactics.

“I don’t think it would work for me,” Bottas said. “Every athlete and every person is an individual, some need some outside support.

“I have plenty of good people around me I can talk to, and for me it’s the man in the mirror that gives me the answers if I have hard times or if I have doubts or so on, I prefer to solve it myself usually. So I don’t really see a gain from that at the moment.

“It is very individual. If you look at many other sports, many people will use psychologists all the time and get some good help from that, but some not a lot. I’m not Nico, I’m Valtteri and I know what works best for me.”

Asked if he has sought advice from Rosberg to see if he can learn anything about how to get the better of his five-time world champion teammate, Bottas replied: “I haven’t really spoken about that with him. I prefer to follow my own way.

“For sure from the outside you can see what he did but let’s see. Some things I like to keep to myself but no plans at the moment to talk about that.

“As I said before, every person is completely individual and different and needs different things to perform well. Different mindsets and everything.”