“I need to talk with him and his crew” – Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff feels Valtteri Bottas did not shine at the Sakhir GP, despite the team’s pit stop blunder.
Toto Wolff will be having a word with Valtteri Bottas and his team after their disappointing performance in the Sakhir GP. Bottas plays second fiddle to Hamilton, but struggling against Russell was quite unexpected.
“I need to talk with (Valtteri) and his crew – but yeah, he did not shine today.”
Bottas’ race engineer Riccardo Musconi seconded his boss’ view, adding they need to up their game. The Finn is on a contract for next season only and based on this performance, it will probably be his last.
“Sorry for the mix-up, but I think we need to be a lot better than this.”
Valtteri Bottas rues missed opportunity to ‘battle’ George Russell
Valtteri Bottas delved into the problems he faced during the race, starting with the first lap. The pit stop blunders ensured Bottas’ weekend ends disappointingly. Had Mercedes been as perfect as they are like always, we would have witnessed an epic intra-team battle for the win.
“I think the race start was the first problem. I had some wheelspin I guess, like last week. Then I think everything was going okay. At the beginning of the second stint I was planning to close the gap to George so was expecting a big battle, but during the Safety Car we stopped because we had the margin to do so… Without the Safety Car, I think George and I would have ended up having a nice battle towards the end.”
