“He’s so solid, so tough and tenacious”- Toto Wolff backs driver Valtteri Bottas amidst fans demanding George Russell appointment demands.
Valtteri Bottas has been the silent knight for Mercedes, which the reigning champions require to prolong their conquest amidst Lewis Hamilton’s dominance.
Though, no matter how suitable the status quo is to Mercedes, fans want to see a change in the system which has been going on since the last five seasons.
Therefore, seeing George Russell’s capabilities in a Mercedes, fans are suggesting them to hire Hamilton’s compatriot for 2021, as he seems to be prepared for the responsibility.
But, Mercedes team principal, despite being a huge believer in Russell’s capabilities still thing that Bottas is the correct choice for Mercedes right now.
“This season, Valtteri has had insane bad luck, ” Wolff said as per the Express. “Several punctures that shouldn’t have happened, red flags as he led easily [at Mugello]. If I didn’t know he has an excellent mind… A driver might start to wonder why this happens to him. But not Valtteri.
“He’s so solid, so tough and tenacious; that’s only going to make him stronger. I’m sorry for him that he had all these problems in one season when he could have won three, four or five races and be second with a good lead.
“I think he’s got the right frame of mind. He had a couple of very, very tough weekends and got over it. He had an excellent race [in Abu Dhabi]. I think he may be released some potential.
“Even at the end of the season when the championships were decided, he bounced back. I think that’s the mentality of a fighter.”
Thin line separated the duo.
Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas considers that he was just separated against Hamilton by a minor difference on several race days, but he still sees improvement in his pace overall.
“It was extremely close many, many times this year and even in top three as well. We had good qualifying battles with Lewis,” he explained. “Obviously in the races more often, as the points show, he got the upper hand.
“But I can’t really say that qualifying was the biggest thing that I improved. I would say actually the race pace overall this year was a little bit better. But obviously, there’s always more work to do.
“Of course I didn’t meet my targets for the year in terms of results… but still now looking at the big picture, there’s so many positive things and so many more lessons learnt about driving and about myself and everything that I can again carry into next year and really turn that into a strength and try again.”
