Valtteri Bottas ignored social media for four days solid after his disappointing performance at Sunday’s Sakhir Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver was outperformed by his teammate George Russell, who was substituting for Lewis Hamilton after the world champion tested positive for COVID-19.
Bottas finished the race eighth, one place ahead of Russell, but only beat his teammate after Russell, who had not driven the car before, suffered a puncture late in the race.
The performance raised question about Bottas’ future at the team, with Russell being lined up as potential replacement for the Finn in 2022.
Although he changed his bio on his social media platforms to remove Mercedes’ team name — causing a stir among F1 fans using those platforms — he said he had avoided any comments or analysis of his performance in Bahrain.
“I’ve learned from the past that sometimes the best thing to do is to block everything, not to look at anything,” he said. “So, after Sunday I haven’t looked at any single headline, any single news article or social media, so that’s the way sometimes you have to do and it works for me.
“I feel, again, full of energy for the new weekend, I feel that I’m in a place that I can perform and that’s the main thing. Every driver has his own way to re-set and get back up when you have a bad moment.”
Bottas said he would learn from his recent drop off in performance, which appears to have coincided with Hamilton wrapping up his seventh title and his fourth since Bottas joined the team at the start of 2017.
“You know, in this kind of moments, when you feel that you don’t perform at 100 per cent for many different races, for different reasons, for sure there’s a lot to learn about,” he added “For sure it’s no secret that battling with Lewis for years and years, I know how much it takes out of me, every single weekend trying to get 100 per cent out of me and keep pushing.
“Sometimes I get close, sometimes I managed to beat him. Having fought four years in a row, a defeat for the championship title is tough to accept.
“For sure it has an effect and when you know that the title is lost, it’s not quite the same, even though you should always give 100 per cent and that’s what I try. We all know how mentally sensitive this sport is, so I think there’s lots to learn from this year, again, and hopefully I can use it for the future.”
Bottas needs to finish fifth at this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to secure second in the drivers’ standings ahead of Max Verstappen and said the quality of his Mercedes car deserves a one-two finish in the championship.
“For sure it would better than third and being in this team, as a Mercedes driver, the team deserves to be one-two, with the car that we have this year so, of course, that is the target.”