Toto Wolff may need to "shut up" over future Valtteri Bottas radio calls

Mercedes

Wolff may need to "shut up" over future Bottas radio calls

Wolff's call to arms to Bottas in Portugal "flatlined"

Ian Parkes

Wednesday 5 May 2021 05:00

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes he may have to curb his enthusiasm in future when it comes to delivering motivational in-race messages to Valtteri Bottas.

On rare occasions, Wolff has taken to the F1 team's radio in a bid to fire up Bottas, and he chose to do so again during Sunday's Portuguese Grand Prix.

With the Finn in pursuit of second-placed Max Verstappen in his Red Bull, Wolff allowed his enthusiasm to get the better of him as he said over the radio: "Hunt him down Valtteri! You're the quickest car!"

Article continues under video

Bottas' progress, however, stalled and was ultimately compounded by a sensor issue that dropped him out of the hunt for second place to team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Asked why he had taken to the radio at that time, Wolff replied: "We discussed it, and I enjoy it because I am so passionate about things that having a release valve to Valtteri I thought works well.

"It actually didn’t work well this time so I maybe need to shut up next time or at least discuss with him.”

Bottas has endured a tough start to this season, notably in Imola where he was off the pace in qualifying and the race before being involved in an accident with Williams' George Russell.

In Portugal, after losing the lead to Hamilton following a brilliant move around the outside of turn one from the seven-time champion, Bottas was later passed by Verstappen after Red Bull executed the undercut pit-stop.

Questioned as to whether Bottas needs such support over the radio, Wolff added: “I don’t know. I need to speak to him.

"He is mentally strong. When you see how he recovered from last [Imola] weekend, he was really catching up, he was hunting him down.

"But when I came on the radio it kind of flatlined, so maybe not in the future anymore.”