Valtteri Bottas: "At the end of 2018 I almost stopped. It was so close."

Valtteri Bottas, speaking to Motorsport Magazine's My Big Break podcast, revealed that he was really close to quitting F1 at the end of 2018.

Valtter Bottas said that he struggled a lot towards the end of 2018, trying to deal with being beaten by Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton. The 2018 season was Bottas's second year with the German team, alongside the four-times, at that point, World Champion, with him finishing fifth in the Drivers' Standnings.

“At the end of 2018 I almost stopped. It was so close. Just because of the fact I couldn’t understand and take in the fact I couldn’t beat Lewis in those two years," Bottas said.

"I put so much pressure on myself. Towards the end of ’18, especially when I started to have the support role, I really couldn’t take it, I really struggled. It was not fun.

The Finn continued: "The human mind is strange in a way, sometimes you go into dark places and you lose the joy on things. I lost the joy of F1 and racing in F1.

"I was almost angry to F1, it’s weird. I just needed some time off. Think things in a big picture and realised it’s a pretty cool sport and I still have great opportunities ahead of me."