[smr2018test]
Valtteri Bottas has spoken up in favour of the resurfaced Circuit de Catalunya which his team mate Lewis Hamilton criticised this week.
On Thursday Hamilton described the work done on the Spanish Grand Prix track as a “waste of money” which had made the venue less challenging.
“It definitely feels different, the Tarmac,” he said. “It’s much smoother, it’s new, it’s darker. It’s going to gather more sunlight, it’s going to be higher temperatures.”
“I prefer this if you ask me because my best races last year tended to be on a smoother surface and I had to learn quite a lot on the rougher Tarmac surface.”
“It makes the track a lot quicker,” he said. “I think once we get get good conditions we’re going to really good lap times, especially when people start to do performance runs. It’s quite grippy.”
Pirelli has produced a softer range of tyres for 2018. However Mercedes has concentrated its running on the harder compounds so far in the cool conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya.
“We had a really good test in Abu Dhabi, conditions were good, tried different tyres,” said Bottas. “So far I’ve run the medium and the soft here and they are too hard and the working range is a bit too high for these conditions because we are not going to see a race, hopefully, like this.”
“There is a difference to last year’s tyres in terms of how they behave, how they feel when you drive them, but it’s not massive.”
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Robbie (@robbie)
3rd March 2018, 12:04
Oh sure, and VB said he wasn’t interested in mind games;)
schooner (@schooner)
3rd March 2018, 12:50
If I read the article correctly, Bottas made his comments the day before Hamilton.
Robbie (@robbie)
3rd March 2018, 12:55
Ah…well spotted lol…VB’s reputation still intact then…the gloves indeed haven’t come off yet;)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd March 2018, 13:04
@robbie @schooner We shouldn’t be too hasty to rule out the possibility of time travel, though.
Robbie (@robbie)
3rd March 2018, 14:03
@keithcollantine Lol, and yikes if Mercedes has that in their repertoire now too.
nase
3rd March 2018, 13:21
@robbie
Also, saying “I like X” when your team mate says “I don’t like X” would be the tamest form of mind games I’ve ever seen. I’d call it “having an opinion”.
Robbie (@robbie)
3rd March 2018, 14:11
Hence my “;)” after my silly sentence;)
nase
3rd March 2018, 17:40
@robbie
Your mind games have no power over me!
;)
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
3rd March 2018, 12:54
I guess it makes complete sense. Lewis prefer a more challenging track to show what he is capable of and more opportunity to make a gap based on talent while Bottas prefer an easier track providing him the opportunity to match or beat Hamilton…
David BR (@david-br)
3rd March 2018, 14:29
It’s a little insight into their overall mentality, I think, and applies to all drivers: Hamilton (and his ilk) focus on where they can gain a speed advantage over other drivers by handling the car, conditions or track differently and better, while Bottas (and his ilk) focus on their own speed and maximizing that. I’d suggest that’s why the former kind of driver tends to win more races. For Hamilton, the more variables for everyone, the better.
Aldoid
3rd March 2018, 12:19
Makes perfect sense, IMO. Lewis has much more experience, so common sense says he’s less likely to be fazed by those bumps… probably knows exactly where the worst ones are. Less curve balls thrown on a smoother surface.
The Limit
3rd March 2018, 12:27
You have to consider that F1 is not the only series to use this racetrack. If the owners of the circuit deem in necessary then that’s fair enough, its not up to anybody else and Hamilton for that matter.
Robbie (@robbie)
3rd March 2018, 12:51
For sure. And viewers won’t sense that which LH opines has been lost in terms of character, as much as I appreciate his sentiment.
George (@george)
3rd March 2018, 13:06
That was part of Hamilton’s point. The circuit is being resurfaced for motogp, it was fine for cars before, and he prefers the bumpier surfaces because they’re more characterful (I tend to agree). Same deal with the car park runoff areas.
OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
3rd March 2018, 15:13
The “simple” solution would be to have F1 and MotoGP in different tracks.
F1 fun
3rd March 2018, 15:39
He only likes the new track surface because he can get quicker lap times. I still don’t think HE’S winning the races HIMSELF, it’s more the car doing it for him.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
3rd March 2018, 15:47
That Mercedes looks like something that has Warp speed markers on its speedometer.
Just epic.
grat
3rd March 2018, 16:48
I wonder what Hamilton would think of Sebring? “You want bumps? We got bumps.”
Balue (@balue)
4th March 2018, 16:07
So one guy is faster on one type of surface and one on the other. At least one is honest about it.