Valtteri Bottas wary of “a few mistakes” that cost 2019 title challenge

Bottas’ 2019 has been a large contrast to the season before which saw the Finn without a win go on to claim four victories and 11 podiums so far.
 
But with some errors along the way it wasn’t enough for the World Championship as Hamilton’s consistency prevailed to wrap up a sixth title in Austin.
 
“Overall I think there were a few mistakes, for sure, from my side I should have been able to avoid,” said Bottas as quoted by MotorsportWeek.
 
“There were a couple on race starts, at least some of them were mistakes, some were maybe unlucky moments but they made me learn.
 
“Then a couple of qualifying [sessions] I messed up in Q3, definitely, which cost me starting position for the race and compromised the race and I lost points because of that.
 
“And then, otherwise, I don’t know, luck, whatever, has been pretty even for me and Lewis overall, so he’s just been on a great level again this year, every single race.”
 
Bottas  sees the positives from his season though and is determined to take the momentum he has into 2020 after being given another year at the Silver Arrows.
 
“I’ve not been able to be at my very, very best every single race, but much more often than ever before, so the direction is clear for me in terms of my development, overall," he added.
 
“It’s a good momentum now and in terms of race pace, which has been my weakness in the years before, I’ve made huge gains by working really hard with the engineers, you know, every single detail of my driving and set-up.

“It [the improvements] gives me really confidence for next year and, unlike at the end of last year, now I really look forward to the year ahead.
 
“I’m already excited to start the next season and start from fresh. So that’s going to be good fun.”