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

During their time together, Mercedes rem😼ained undefeated in the constructors’ championship despite titanic duels with Ferrari and Red Bull over the years.

Unl𝓀ike his predecessor, Nico Rosberg, Bottas was unable to maintain a credible title challenge against Ha🌳milton.

Often, the Finn would start the season stron💮gly before fading as Hamilton tended to ജgrow stronger.

Speaking on the latest episode of F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Bottas was asked out of a𒁃ll of his teammates, who was the fastest.

He replied: “Lewis. I think he is still the quic🍎kest driver on the gridܫ.” 

The interviewer then asked: “Quicker than♔ Max [Verstappen]? Quicker than Charles [Leclerc]?”

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

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

“Well firs⛦t of all, annoyingly talented,” he explained. “On top of that, works hard. Works way harder than people actually think like outside the race 𒁃weekend 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 bꦕaseline 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 quite managed to.”