Toto Wolff sets Valtteri Bottas task of overtaking F1 champion Lewis Hamilton
TOTO WOLFF says Valtteri Bottas has the “whole package” to beat Lewis Hamilton.
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Bottas came second to Hamilton in the 2017 F1 Drivers’ Championship.
The Finn managed three race wins in his debut season at Mercedes.
But Hamilton dominated the campaign with 10 Grand Prix victories on his way to the world title.
Bottas still has two years on his Mercedes contract and Wolff has denied they are looking to replace him for the 2020 season.
And the team boss told Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat the 28-year-old is capable of challenging Hamilton for titles.
"Valtteri just has to understand what he missed during the weekends when he lost out to Lewis,” he said.
“And on the other hand understand his strength of those weekends when he beat his teammate, for example in Sochi (which Bottas won).
"Valtteri has it all.
“He just has to get the whole package together.”
Bottas and Hamilton will reconvene for the 2018 season in the New Year, with Mercedes determined to retain both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships.
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And Bottas himself spoke out earlier this week on Hamilton’s dominance.
"His strength was the qualifying," Bottas told GPUpdate.net.
"He did some really good qualifying performances and most of the time started the race from pole position and [the race is] always different [from pole].
"I think for me I need to focus on my qualifying, and also some of the races that I struggled with the race pace.
"The last few races of the season I could really learn a lot and improve a lot, so I need more consistency with my results and then it's possible to fight with him."
