Valtteri Bottas aims to have a simple weekend in Mexico even though the track favours Red Bull on paper and can land them another win.
Valtteri Bottas had an underwhelming United States Grand Prix, where he could only finish P6. The main reason for his poor result is the grid penalty he received, which left him handicapped against his rivals.
The Finn race driver talks about his woes in the Circuit of the Americas, as he struggled to get past the midfield after starting P9 ahead of the race.
“It was difficult, like I expected,” Bottas told media, “What made it more tricky in the first stint was being behind the AlphaTauris and not being able to get by.”
“[I] obviously lost quite a bit of time. Unfortunately, there was no help from a Safety Car today. I made some progress, but it was slow. Making progress was difficult, and we knew it would be because of the temperatures here and the characteristics of the track.
“Not the strongest weekend for us, but in free air the car felt good, and there are plenty of learnings we can take forward as a team.”
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Valtteri Bottas and his bad luck
When asked why only he is at the receiving end of all the engine unreliabilities, he blamed his luck for it. However, he is hopeful that he may not end up taking more engine penalties.
“I think it’s just a question of me being a bit more unlucky,” he explained. “The engines have passed all the tests and reliability checks and, in theory, they should be OK, but just the luck has not been on my side of that and I’ve had more failures.”
Heading to Mexico after taking three grid penalties in the last four races, Bottas said he is hopeful of a clean weekend. “I really hope it will be straightforward,” he laughed.
“No doubt it’s going to be a track that favours Red Bull, but [I’m] looking forward to it.”
