The Bahrain Grand Prix was not exactly a great day in the office for Valtteri Bottas. However, his post-race debrief could have gone a little better. Apparently, he and team principal Toto Wolff had an odd interaction between themselves. At the season-opening race, he barely featured in the lead battle with team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Admittedly, Bottas was on the back foot for most of the weekend. To make matters worse, he endured a botched pitstop that saw him stationary for 10 seconds. In addition to that, he questioned his team’s race strategy for being too ‘defensive’ and ‘passive’. Before the new season began, the Finn declared that he planned to be more ‘demanding and selfish’.
However, Wolff was not in the mood to discuss anything as he promptly cut him off. The Austrian defended the Finn’s strategy, insisting that Bottas’ options were limited. According to him, they tried the undercut with both drivers, and it was a gamble.
Went all the way back to record it. Valtteri talking to Toto and he cuts him off
pic.twitter.com/2Vs9oaOmDm— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) March 28, 2021
It was not meant to be for Valtteri Bottas
Sadly, it was not a very favorable outcome, as he lost a position at the start. Later on, he could not make any headway on the race leaders. To rectify that, the plan wan to pit Bottas early to try and undercut Max Verstappen. Unfortunately, everything that could go wrong, went wrong, as the right front wheel gun misfired.
At that point, Toto Wolff confessed that he had not clue which strategy to run. Their initial plan for a one-stop strategy was a bust, so they had to recalculate. As the race progressed, it became clear that the medium tyres would not last the entire race and the hard was running out of performance.
He admitted, “I totally understand the frustration in the car when you have limited information and say ‘I think we could have done something else.’”
Obviously, the frustrated Finn could not make any headway and settled for a lonely third. Hopefully, he can produce a better showing at the next race weekend.
READ MORE: Mercedes F1 Used Valtteri Bottas to Distract Verstappen in Bahrain GP: Button
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