In an interview with the media yesterday, Williams driver Valtteri Bottas admits he will be left wondering what might have been after his hopes of victory went up in smoke after a woeful start off the line at the Italian Grand Prix.
Bottas was quietly confident he could mix it with Mercedes after Williams’ promising Friday pace and qualifying third on the grid. But Bottas went backwards off the line, dropping to 11th as he struggled with wheel spin, something he thinks could be down to an aggressive clutch delivery.
In an interview with the media yesterday, Bottas believes that the race yesterday didn’t go according to plan and that the start didn’t help him at all. Bottas stated the following:-
‘Compared to the grip I had available in the tyres I think we were a bit aggressive with the clutch. The start for the formation lap when we always do the final checks was compromised because Lewis [Hamilton] had a slow getaway so that maybe hurt a little bit.
‘Definitely the tyres were not in the optimum window and maybe for that condition we were a bit too aggressive, I had a poor start but the same thing continued after Turn 2 – just wheel spinning after Turn 2. After the poor start the position I was in the chicane was a bit lucky, I couldn’t accelerate at the maximum rate. That really compromised the race for me.’
It is clear that what happened at the start certainly didn’t help Bottas yesterday in the race. It would seem that Bottas believes that the tyres were not working effectively for him alongside this and believes that this hindered his chances of fighting for a podium. As Bottas says, the start didn’t help him and who knows what he would have achieved if he didn’t encounter these problems but he did extremely well to fight his way back to fourth place.
Bottas had recovered to fourth by his first pit stop and further on in his interview, he says his pace in clear air suggests he could have mixed it with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in front. Bottas added the following:-
‘They seemed to be really strong, I don’t know if they were on the limit or not with engine modes and everything. Even though in the long prime stint I had, even though for the first 20 laps I was fighting, when I got some clean air I could keep more or less similar pace to them so that will be a question-mark forever I think. It’s a pity because today I came into the race with the mentality that this was the best chance of the season to fight for the win, so fourth is not really that satisfying.’
After getting back to fourth, Bottas in the latter stages in his interview, he admits that had to do it all again after regaining at the back of a train of cars, something he admits was down to the timing of his pit stop. Bottas said the following:-
‘I think one lap too late but obviously Felipe [Massa] had the priority because he was in front. I had to wait for him to stop and then I did, it meant it put me really on the limit with Vettel with our cold tyres. A few cars came past so we lost some time but in terms of how many points we got as a team that didn’t cost us anything today.
‘It’s not easy when you are out with a new prime on a shiny surface and they are not fully up to temperature. I need to have a look and see if there is anything I could do better [on pit exit]. In the end it didn’t cost anything but in the future is could.’
I do feel that the call that the Williams team made on Bottas was a lap too late but as Bottas says Massa had the priority and rightly so as he was in front of him on the circuit. As a result, Bottas lost positions after coming out of his pit stop to drivers such as Vettel and he lost some time trying to fight his way back through the grid back to fourth.
Of course it is not easy for Bottas to get his tyres up to temperature after his pit stop and battle to keep his position on track. There is no question that Bottas will analyse the data from yesterday and improve on this issue in order not to lose any more time like this again.
But even though the race didn’t go according to how Bottas feels it could have done, the main thing is that Bottas once again battled his way through the grid amazingly well to get fourth place yesterday. Bottas again has shown that he is a potential talent of the future and has built upon the recent consistency and his performances from the last Grand Prixs.
It is clear for all to see that even though Bottas didn’t perform to the level he wanted to, he brought some much needed points for Williams and they are now ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors Championship. And they achieved on the day that Williams retained the services of Massa and Bottas for 2015 and also achieving another podium result with Massa too and all of them should be happy with what they achieved yesterday at Monza and their future is looking even more brighter, especially the future of Bottas.
