Marko Hanželic
Although it sits in arguably by far the best Formula 1 race car, it is Valtteri Bottas won only two races this year. She finally did embarrassed in the Istanbul rain and in Bahrain twice reached the finish line as the eighth. Team boss Mercedes, Toto Wolff, he says that the fall of Finč's form is even more visible when the championship was finally lost for him: "We still need to talk about this," he adds Viennese.
Wolff is an uncompromising analysis Bottas racing did this season in an interview as part of a media event on a television channel Sky. "If I only knew why!", Wolff speculates about the reasons for the poor form of his Finnish driver. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen him always start well and win races in the beginning. It is completely competitive. Competing with Lewis is, of course, anything but easy. This has been really difficult for each of his teammates so far. ”
Bottas has talent as well as intelligence: "You can't win a race, especially not against Lewis Hamilton, or beat him in qualifying if you don't have one," is convinced Wolff. “So you just have to get to the point, sort things out and maintain that level throughout the season. That's the only way to win the championship. "
Wolff at the same time notes that Bottas situation at Mercedes at the moment “Anything but easy”, "Because of course he is under a lot of pressure". About what Wolff by this concrete thought, we can only guess. Probably the team boss is hinting at a good performance with this George Russell in Bahrain.
It's in a Formula 1 paddock Russell's play triggered a surge of excitement and many fans would like to see a duel between Hamilton in Russell in a silver arrow in 2021. Even experts like Ralf Schumachersay: "Bottas can be really happy to have a contract."
"We know what we have in Valtteri," explains Wolff. “In his good days, he is by no means worse than Lewis at least in the fast lap. If he takes the lead in a race, he usually manages to keep that lead and wins the race. ”
"I should probably have won more races this year if there hadn't been a collision, breakdown or an unfortunate safety car," he said Wolff. It also applies to VN Sakhir: “The start was a complete failure. Unlike George, who did everything perfectly. ” In principle, Bottas was fast enough, but “in the last ten or fifteen laps, everything went to nothing”.
And what he said about all of the above Bottas? "I do not know. I can only say that I have had a lot of pitch since Imola onwards. I don't even know when I was last on the podium! ” The XNUMX-year-old adds: “It’s true that I didn’t do my best in the last two races. But of course I try to do my best all the time. In Formula 1, you depend on many factors. Sometimes it's happiness, sometimes it's what you do in and out of the car. ”
Without delay, the Finn admitted: “I can only say that I can do this much better than you have seen on average in the last four races. I have a feeling I need to improve there. But these are precisely the moments from which we can learn the most, and I must use this to my advantage. ”
