To those who don’t know F1, I might have looked like a complete **** - Bottas
To those who don’t know F1, I might have looked like a complete **** - Bottas
Valtteri Bottas conceded his performance in the Sakhir Grand Prix against stand-in Mercedes team-mate George Russell might have made him look like "a complete ****" to anyone not familiar with Formula 1.
Russell joined the team in place of Lewis Hamilton after the seven-time champion tested positive for Covid-19, placing Bottas under pressure to perform against a driver who is seen as Mercedes’ star of the future.
Bottas was outpaced by Russell on Friday in practice after the Finn damaged the floor of his W11 in FP1 before having his two best lap times deleted in FP2 for exceeding track limits.
In qualifying, Russell finished just 0.026 seconds adrift of Bottas in a front-row lock-out and in a car uncomfortable to him given his significantly taller frame compared to Hamilton.
After beating Bottas off the line into turn one at the start, Russell was then denied a deserved win by a pit-stop mistake by the team and then a puncture nine laps from the finish.
“If you don’t know things, I might have looked like a complete ****, a fool, so that’s not nice,” said Bottas. “But the people who know, they know how the performance [was] and how the end result could have been.
“It was a pretty bad race for me from that side and it will be very easy for people to say that a new guy comes in and beats the guy who has been in the team a few years, so it was not ideal.
“I knew that in the first stint with the medium tyre that the track position would be important, so obviously it was unfortunate to lose that, but in the second stint I was catching him at a pretty decent rate
“I knew everything was still going to be open and that most likely we were going to have a good battle. He obviously did a mistake-free race, but I still knew there would be everything to play for.
“I was confident, based on what I felt with the hard tyre, the car was more complete balance-wise. I knew there was going to be other opportunities and that was ultimately the plan for me, to get him, and it was getting close.
“The race was not finished when we had the thing with the pit stops, which changed everything. I managed to go a bit longer on the medium tyre and that would have opened up opportunities for me. I was catching him.”
The pit stop mistake came on lap 63 of 87 when, with a good lead on the rest of the pack, Mercedes double-stacked its cars for a precautionary tyre change during a safety car period.
Things went wrong when a broken radio left one pit crew member without the correct information, resulting in Bottas' tyres being fitted to Russell’s car, forcing the pit-stop crew to sent the former back out on the hard tyres he had come in on.
That left Bottas struggling to withstand attacks from those behind as he dropped from fourth at the restart to eighth at the chequered flag, a place ahead of Russell.
“It’s hard to explain the feeling when you come to a pit stop and you leave the pit stop with the same old tyres that you came in with and then lose positions," added Bottas.
“Obviously a big mistake from the team that will be analysed and learned from. It was a nightmare being on the old tyres that had lost temperature. I was like a sitting duck. It was a real nightmare situation.”
Related
Change your timezone:
Latest News
F1 News Today: Vettel CONFIRMS stunning comeback as Red Bull boss issues Verstappen statement
- 1 hour ago
Hamilton fired serious warning by Wolff as F1 star takes aim at controversial FIA decision - GPFans F1 Recap
- Yesterday 23:57
F1's quirkiest star begins selling ICE CREAM in latest venture
- Yesterday 22:57
F1 colleagues UNFOLLOW each other as internal drama cranks up
- Yesterday 21:57
Hamilton 'emotional burden' heading into 2024 season revealed
- Yesterday 21:12
Marko DIRECTLY addresses Verstappen quit rumours
- Yesterday 20:27
F1 Race Calendar
-
GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
Carlos Sainz
- GP JAPAN 5 - 7 Apr
- GP CHINA 19 - 21 Apr
- GP USA 3 - 6 May
- GP ITALY 17 - 19 May
- GP MONACO 24 - 26 May
Related news
Bizarre F1 curse BLAMED for Russell crash
F1 pundit SLAMS Mercedes as Hamilton woes continue
Hamilton labelled 'best that's ever walked the earth' after INCREDIBLE display
F1 team SAVED Russell from major injuries after horror crash
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