Valtteri Bottas has been driving for Mercedes since 2017 and yet it has become the norm for him to receive contracts that are only for a single year each time. This means that every year, talk inevitably turns towards whether Mercedes will retain him or not and 2021 is no different. Some have suggested that this has hindered his performance on track and Bottas has now revealed if this is true while speaking to ESPN I'm your host Dillon Shelley and first up on Formula World: Link to poll: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgxnbdeZuhyVYRr2a0Z4AaABCQ 0:00 - Valtteri Bottas Critical Of Mercedes' One-Year Contracts 1:50 - Fast Feed Bottas began by explaining why he has no regrets “I have to say, I have no regrets. I have always tried everything I can, and the same thing this year. Obviously this year has not been the best start of the season with many races not getting points with DNFs or whatever, but no regrets at all and I have always tried to give it all I have” He then stated that he won’t be shaken by anything that the future has in store for him “I feel like nowadays whatever is thrown at me will not shake me and I feel like I am ready for anything and any kind of challenge in the future. I will try everything I can for myself and for the team for the future, whatever happens” Bottas then responded to suggestions that the one-year deals with Mercedes haven’t been ideal for him “It’s only speculation and it’s only guessing based on what I feel right now, but it definitely would have saved a lot of energy and a lot of extra unnecessary pressure and dealing with the media at certain times of the year” He signed off by explaining how this energy could have been used in a more constructive manner instead “That way there would have been more time and energy spent just working with team together on the future. Not just focusing on the moment, but knowing you are with the team and focusing on next year and all the improvements you want to share with the team for the future. For sure, it would have been a different peace of mind, but it is only speculation” Fast Feed McLaren’s Lando Norris “would say this has probably been [his] best [season] by quite a long way mainly just from the consistency side of it” [Formula Rapida] “Talking about qualifying, there was only really Barcelona, which was an off event for [him]. The rest of them have been pretty good and [he doesn’t] think [he’s] had that in probably any other series” He reiterated that “this year what’s been good, is both [his] qualifying consistency and more importantly the race consistency” Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has pointed out that “Giovinazzi gets a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Vettel is disqualified because there is only 0.3 litres of fuel in his tank” [Motorsport Magazin] “On the other hand [they] have double engine damage due to the collisions caused by the Mercedes drivers and [he has questioned] whether the penalty system is fair and whether one should not apply other standards” He added that “it happened twice within a fortnight and then it becomes something that can be decisive for the championship” For Alpine’s Fernando Alonso “it seems that the sport and how social media is now, [they] seem to get confused about the age or the performance that a sportsman can do” [The Race] “This is not the Tour De France, this is not the Olympic Games, this is not football where at 23 you are at the peak of your performance” “If I race myself now against myself of 23, I will beat him with one hand. It’s not the younger you are, the quicker you are. This is not how the stopwatch works in motorsport”, Alonso explained McLaren CEO Zak Brown thinks that “ in the 2024 season [they] will have no more excuses” [Motorsport] “[He hopes] that by then the sport will be so competitive that there will be several teams fighting for the championship. And [he hopes that they] will be one of them” Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel feels that “there are many big problems that you cannot escape from as a world citizen, because we are all affected by them” [Sport1] “After all the experiences and mistakes of the past, there really shouldn’t be any excuses today to hold on to exclusion. We know how to do things better, and everyone can contribute in small or large ways” “We all look at the nice slogans on the carpet before the race and yet for some people it seems to be a problem. It’s a sad world in some ways”, Vettel surmised Williams’ George Russell is of the opinion that “sport is about talent. The talent of the driver, the engineers, the designers. We have seen in the past that teams had huge budgets, but did nothing with it” [Auto Motor und Sport] He also added that as far as the pecking order is concerned with a change in regulations, “who knows? Everything can turn around. But Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari will be in the top five” Can Formula 1 become more competitive with many teams fighting for the championship by 2024?