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Bottas using Hamilton videos to improve battles

Valtteri Bottas has included watching videos of how teammate Lewis Hamilton has attacked rivals in the past as part of an effort to lift his own game when it comes to in-race battles.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF90, leads Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W10, and Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG W10

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF90, leads Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W10, and Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG W10

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The Finn's failure to launch a better challenge against Charles Leclerc at the recent Italian Grand Prix has highlighted an issue he has in extracting the most from his car when closely following a rival. 

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Bottas admits that it is a factor of his performance that he needs to improve, which is why he is digging deep to get a better understanding of why Hamilton has an edge on this front.

"With the team we have started the process for me to try to get better on that," he said.

"There are some occasions when Lewis has done a better job in following another car, getting closer quicker and to be able to attack.

"So we are looking at all the things I can learn from that, and looking at videos from the past, with different races and situations and all that."

Bottas is clear, however, that even him having been able to attack Leclerc harder at Monza would not have changed the result, because of the straightline speed advantage that the Ferrari car had.

"Honestly I feel that there was no way to win Monza, with the conditions we had, with the straightline difference and the tyres dropping at the end," he said.

"Whether I had some lock ups or not, it was not going to be the case looking back and analysing everything. But for sure, it's an area that I can still improve and it is a strength of Lewis."

Bottas says that the work on better understanding what happens when he gets close to other cars is just one example of the level of detail he is having to look at in a bid to boost his performances.

"In this sport there are so many details and things that you can improve if you invest your time into that," he said. "If I want to beat Lewis over a whole season, I definitely need to dig as deep as I can and not to leave any stone unturned. And I am ready for that completely with the team.

"We are in a good spirit now, with the engineers, and on my side of the garage we are pretty united for me to be able to find those gains step by step and improve

"They can see the improvements from last year, so they are motivated as well to help me. I think we found a nice way of working now and I hope that will bring the results in the future."

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