Valtteri Bottas described the Canadian Grand Prix as a “wake-up call” after losing ground in the championship fight.
Bottas fell 29 points – more than a maximum race score – behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton after finishing fourth on Sunday. Though he said it hadn’t been a particularly “difficult” weekend, Bottas admitted the error during qualifying which left him sixth on the grid spoiled the race for him.“I felt really good in Q1, Q2. From Q2 I had a clear idea of how to improve, where to improve and I was really confident. And then it really came down to a silly mistake.”
He admitted it was “obviously annoying” to lose “big points” to Hamilton in the championship. “I can’t afford these kind of weekends if I’m going to fight for the title.
“So it’s not ideal but I have to move on. Maybe a bit of a wake-up call again, for sure I can always learn from that.”
Bottas struggled with climbing temperatures in his car during the race because his cooling had been set up in anticipation of him qualifying higher on the grid.
“[Sunday] was a degree or two warmer than everyone maybe thought it was going to be. We were kind of counting that we were going to be on the first row or at least second row but being in third row makes it always a lot more difficult. So we knew there could be trouble and so there was.”
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joe pineapples
10th June 2019, 18:06
Not once did I see him with the trademark coffee cup and serious face this weekend. Surely a factor in his under performance.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
10th June 2019, 18:10
He was distinctly Bottas 1.0 than 2.0 this weekend. Didn’t look particularly quick, mistakes and then struggled to clear the Renault’s. To be honest only Gasly seemed to struggle more than him. I hope for the sake of a competitive championship that it’s just a blip, as weekends like this will be what decides whether the world championship goes to 44 or 77.
socksolid (@socksolid)
10th June 2019, 22:28
Bottas was too soft against ricciardo. It is those kind of situations that reveal what you have and bottas did not have it. He backed off when he should have gone all in. He let ricciardo make him look soft and indecisive which all the drivers will take benefit of later. A driver like hamilton or verstappen would have never let that happen. Ricciardo knew he could do that bottas. Ricciardo would not try that on verstappen on hamilton.
Hugh (@hugh11)
11th June 2019, 10:35
I think that if it was on one of the top 3 teams, he’d have been a bit more aggressive. But he probably knew that eventually he’d get the Renault, so no point in risking a crash.
JMDan (@danmar)
12th June 2019, 18:46
Which is what made Senna and Gilles Villeneuve, and many more, such great drivers. They weren’t afraid of crashing. You can’t pussy-foot your way to an F1 championship.
AMG44 (@amg44)
10th June 2019, 19:21
Bottas 2.0 didnt turn up for this race or Is it the beginning of Hamilton getting on top of early season car and tyre issues?
Gav
10th June 2019, 19:32
The whole Bottas 2.0 bull was ridiculously premature in any case. It was his post-summer break form in 2017 and 2018 that cost him, and in his inability to mentally recover from being beaten by Hamilton.
Bram (@br444m)
10th June 2019, 23:17
It was indeed. Last year, Bottas performed similarly well in the first part of the season, only the points didn’t reflect it. Then, Hamilton got the better of him. I think the whole 2.0 thing is just to have a nice underdog story.
Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
10th June 2019, 19:42
Bottas’ wake up call:
“Hello?”
“Hi Valtteri, it’s Esteban.”
Phylyp (@phylyp)
10th June 2019, 20:10
@ninjenius :)
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
10th June 2019, 20:13
+10
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
10th June 2019, 20:12
Where was Valteri when the lights went out – back in 2018 mode?
RP (@slotopen)
10th June 2019, 20:25
A one DNF lead is an important milestone in the WDC. Hamilton can take more risks and other drivers can’t push him around. Vettel, Bottas, and Leclerc stll have to be very cautious.
Green Flag (@greenflag)
10th June 2019, 21:03
“I can’t afford these kind of weekends if I’m going to fight for the title”. Bottas, wingmen don’t get to fight for the title. Ask Toto, he’ll tell you.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
10th June 2019, 21:37
I don’t think Bottas’s race pace was that bad at all. He just seemed to struggle to find a way past and was a bit too cautious. The reason why I think his race pace wasn’t that bad was because despite being behind Renaults for ages on both stints, once he got past in the 2nd stint, he managed to do fastest lap and maintain the gap to the leaders. This gap to the leaders obviously dropped when he pitted again to guarantee a fastest lap point. But I don’t think he was as slow as some thought he was. I’d say that if he had jumped Ricciardo at the start, he will have only been slightly slower than the leaders. Obviously his fault for having a poor qualifying getting him stuck behind the Renaults. I think Hulkenberg just got a great start rather than a bad one for Bottas. But it certainly did hold him back. He just seemed to struggle to be aggressive enough. but if he had temperature problems, maybe this did limit the number of attempts he could have.
I think that given that average time wise, he has basically matched Hamilton this season in qualifying, I think that he will normally be right up with him and still beat him several more times in qualifying. And track position seems vital this year given the overtaking difficulties.
Hugh (@hugh11)
11th June 2019, 10:37
Hulk was actually decently behind at turn 1, but on turn 2, Bottas got bogged down a bit on the inside as that’s where everyone was, and Hulk managed to sweep all the way round the outside.
Lums (@lums)
11th June 2019, 11:55
As usual, beating a dead horse.
Yea right. You can apply that same logic to Stroll too. After all, anyone can be champion in A Mercedes eh!
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
11th June 2019, 13:15
How? Stroll has been outqualified every time hasn’t he and the average gap is negative to perez by a significently larger margin. I don’t get why you are comparing Stroll and Perez to this.
The fact is, between the mercedes pair, it is 4 – 3 to Hamilton. And the gaps will average out to be very close.
Lums (@lums)
11th June 2019, 14:28
@thegianthogweed
Points are given on Sundays as you know, hence why it’s 5-2 to Lewis in race wins. No matter how you paint it, Valtteri is not on the same level to Lewis. He is a tier 2 driver at best. Sure, he’ll score a few more PP and even race wins but, it’ll all play out like the last 2 seasons. Heck, even Vettel is closer to Valtteri than Valttri to Lewis on points.
Quit trying to flatter his performance just to undermine Lewis’. For a Mercedes driver, his performance was beyond poor this weekend.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
11th June 2019, 19:23
I am not stating anywhere that I think it is not clear Hamilton is better. I am implying that if Bottas can keep occasionally beating him in qualifying and gets a good start, given the overtaking difficulties this year, I can see Bottas beating him even if Hamilton is better sometimes.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
11th June 2019, 0:08
We really need Bottas o recover from this and dominate the next 2 races at least.
Otherwise I’m afraid the WDC will be all but over. You simply can’t afford to give a driver of Hamilton’s stature a lead that big and just hope he has some off days.
Fortunately the midfield battle this year is a cracker.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
11th June 2019, 1:06
I’m cheering for Bottas to take it to the limit and claw back an advantage. Hopefully he can find something otherwise the world champion might as well already be crowned.
I understand Mercedes inclination to stick with what works but I’d love to see Ocon or another new talent replace Bottas next year to pose a good fight. Even Wolff has said in the past that domination is boring.
Jon (@johns23)
11th June 2019, 5:17
Im not sure Ocon would do any better than Bottas to be honest.
dex
11th June 2019, 10:51
I think Ocon is a great ”new” talent better than Leclerc, and up near Verstappen. His performances against team mate Perez whilst at Force India were excellent. If Bottas does not improve and narrow the gap to Hamilton very soon then he will be replaced next season by Esteban. Hamilton has now got to grips with this years car and will just get stronger and stronger, and Bottas could face a similar humiliation to last year.
tony mansell
11th June 2019, 11:13
I did wonder amongst all the hullabaloo if this was going to be picked up. Not far off all the excitable Leclerc talk. Not only has he dropped off quick but Lewis tends to come back from the August break like Superman. if you cant match him in his Clark Kent phase you’re in trouble. Nico’s WDC looks more heroic by the year
JMDan (@danmar)
12th June 2019, 18:41
You shouldn’t sleep so much Valtteri.