Mark Webber says Valtteri Bottas is not hungry enough for F1 title
F1 News
Valtteri Bottas had his best season in F1 in 2019, winning four races and scoring podiums in a further 11 times, but yet he still ended the year a massive 87 points away from title-winning Lewis Hamilton. Another driver who had title challenges in his career but never quite made it is Mark Webber, and the Australian says Bottas lacks the desire needed to win the big prize.
Webber finished third three times in F1, most notably in 2010, when mistakes towards the end of the season cost him his best chance of a title.
Bottas began the 2019 season in great form, but it drifted away over the middle part before two more wins at the end of the season.
But it wasn't enough to challenge the mercurial Hamilton, and Webber believes the Finn doesn't have what it takes to win a title.
He told Channel 4's On The Marbles podcast: “Bottas in terms of wheel-to-wheel, that hunger that fight, going down swinging, often we still miss a bit of that with Valtteri.
“Lewis has put the masterclass on everyone, Leclerc arrived with a couple of uppercuts, Seb [Vettel] with a couple of uppercuts, he’s just picked them off one by one.
“Over the season his stamina levels are extraordinary.”