Abu Dhabi 'a different ballgame' for Bottas
Abu Dhabi 'a different ballgame' for Bottas
Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff is confident that Valtteri Bottas has learned from his mistakes at the Brazil Grand Prix when he allowed Sebastian Vettel to sneak ahead early on despite being on pole, and insisted the GP at Yas Marina will be a 'different ballgame' for the Finn.
Bottas impressed in qualifying yesterday and recorded the fastest time ahead of team-mate, Lewis Hamilton. He will be in pole position for the start of the Abu Dhabi GP this afternoon, but Wolff has insisted his driver will not have the same problem again this time round like in Brazil.
"His confidence has been coming back in the last races," said Wolff.
"And we saw a really great qualifying in Brazil, and a great qualifying here.
"But the start [in Brazil] was certainly something he will beating him himself up about. The tricky bit is you don't really see in the rear mirrors, so he struggled to understand where Sebastian was, and didn't want to take any risks.
"Maybe Sunday is going to be a different ball game."
In Brazil, Bottas failed to recover from allowing Vettel to overtake him, but Wolff thinks that the Mercedes car is much more suited to his abilities this time in Abu Dhabi, while claiming that the Finn needs to simply continue with his current form next year in order to secure a contract for the 2019 season.
"We have never doubted in Valtteri's raw speed. You could see that again today," the Mercedes boss continued.
"The difficulty is the interaction with the tyres and just finding the optimum set up to have the tyre in the sweet spot. This is something that has worked much better for Lewis, albeit also very difficult. Valtteri has hit that sweet spot today."
"It is important to see that he continues what he does in the first half year, what we have seen in Brazil, what we have seen today, and then it's a no-brainer.
"We like working with Valtteri and with Lewis, the two fit well together. We have good dynamics in the team and no reason to change it if we continue on where we are today."
Change your timezone:
Latest News
Audi agree STAR driver contract as Mercedes driver tipped for new F1 seat THIS season - GPFans F1 Recap
- 2 hours ago
Ferrari show off new-look drivers following HUGE announcement
- 3 hours ago
McLaren leading fight for HUGE cash injection
- Yesterday 21:57
Newey set to announce STUNNING Red Bull departure
- Yesterday 17:57
Newey Red Bull exit wish CONFIRMED as F1 guru's reasons revealed
- Yesterday 20:57
F1 legend reveals 'FLOOD' of death threats after controversial decision
- Yesterday 19:57
F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
About GPFans
GPFans is a multi-platform, multi-language brand dedicated to Formula One coverage. We bring you all the ins and outs of the sport, 24/7, everything from up-to-the-minute news and features to the latest viral stories and clips.We believe that a new generation of exciting, outspoken drivers will make F1 more popular than ever before, and we want to give our users access to as much of their heroes as possible, on and off the track. From Lewis Hamilton to Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo to Sebastian Vettel, we provide in-depth analysis of every every Grand Prix in the season, from Australia to Abu Dhabi.
With Formula One under the new ownership of Liberty Media, how the sport is being covered is evolving, and GPFans will look to be at the heart of this progression into new media, as one of the fastest-growing sites covering the king of motorsports.
Follow us on your favorite social media channel
Corporate & Media
Innovatieweg 20C7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31645516860