Sometimes some people need to adjust to a new unexpected situation. You'd like to think progress is linear, but it mostly isn't.

Bottas was ordinary last year. There were more factors affecting his result than just underperforming.

Bottas performed better than Hamilton in 4 of the first 7 races last year. He just didn't get the results. When Vettel became a seriously challenger in the standings, this then affects the way MB treat him. His results became expendable (Same with Ferrari to Raikkonen).

Most notably this occurred in Russia. But it was like that throughout the last 2/3s of the season. Holding station behind Hamilton in Germany. Compromising his performance to affect Raikkonen at Monza.

But he has to take responsibility for the team compromising his results, because he didn't put the points on the board in the beginning of the season. 34pts behind Hamilton after Canada (Who lost the title lead) made it an easy decision for the team to compromise his performances. It's a different situation if he was closer to Ham in the points.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/r...1M5U3W,267XD,1

“Maybe his years at Williams and then the shock draft into Mercedes was something he needed to digest” – Toto Wolff

Damn right, Toto.