Bottas spent five years alongside Hamilton before moving to 🦂Alfa Romeo for 2022.

During their time together, Mercedes remained undefeated in the constructors’ championship despite titanic duels with Ferrari 𒈔and Red Bull over the years.

Unlike his predecessor, Nic♏o R🦋osberg, Bottas was unable to maintain a credible title challenge against Hamilton.

Often, the Finn would start the season strongly before fading as Hamilton tendeꦗd to grow stronger.

Speaking on the latest episode of F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Bottas was asked out of all of his teammates, wh🐷o was the fastest.

He replied: “Lewis. I think he is st🥃ill the quickest driver on the grid.” 

The interviewer then asked: “Quicker than M🧔ax [Verstappen]? Quicker than Charles [Leclerc]?”

He added: “Yeah, yeah. To me he’s the fastest".

Bottas expanded on what made Hamilton so foꦕrmidable during their stint together, describing the seven-time world champion as “annoyingly talented”.

“Well first of all, annoyingly talented,” he explained. “On top of that, works hard. Works way harder than people actually think like outside the race weekend and in the race weekends. Quite often the last person to leave from the paddock of the drivers. It’s just🉐 that combination. 

“He’s got big drive inside him to always deliver, to do well and his average baseline performance is so good that he's really consistent as well. Makes him hard to beat. When I could beat him it was for me a good day but on average I never qui🐟te managed to.”