Image by Dunbar/LAT
Bottas hurt by Wolff’s ‘wingman’ comments
Valtteri Bottas admits it hurts to be called “a sensational wingman” by team principal Toto Wolff after helping teammate Lewis Hamilton win the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s biggest threat appeared to be Sebastian Vettel -- with the Ferrari on a different strategy having started on soft tires -- but a slow pit stop saw the German emerge in third place behind Bottas. With Vettel on ultrasofts and Bottas on old soft tires from an early pit stop in response to Kimi Raikkonen, Mercedes left Bottas out and Vettel was unable to overtake.
But Vettel tried with five laps to go. As Bottas struggled with the rear tires, Vettel attacked and appeared to cleanly get ahead on the exit of Turn 1. But Bottas, not willing to give up, tried to get his nose down the inside of Turn 2, hitting the rear of the Ferrari and breaking his own front wing. After he lost a Kimi Raikkonen drove past for third, Bottas made additional contact with Daniel Ricciardo as the Red Bull tried to overtake around the outside of Turn 1 two laps later and lost the spot.
Eventually, Bottas ran out of tires and slipped to fifth place at the flag, with Wolff praising his drive.
“We came here with a damage limitation motto and we came away with more points than the competition,” Wolff told Sky Sports. “It’s a great win for Lewis but it feels a little bit bittersweet, I don’t know why, because Valtteri would have deserved a podium, because he was such a sensational wingman.”
When the comments were put to Bottas, he replied: “Well, first of all ‘wingman’ hurts.
“Second of all I don’t see any positives for me. We thought we should have been able to do that one-stop. We had to stop earlier than we wanted because of Kimi, we had to cover him.
“Still 20 laps from the end everything was feeling OK, I had good control of the pace and my position. But then the rear tires started to die. I tried to defend best I could, as aggressive as I could, but it all ended up being a bit of a mess in the end with a broken front wing and everything.”
While unhappy with the comment, Bottas acknowledges Mercedes is likely to tell him he is supporting Hamilton’s title challenge soon after dropping 81 points behind his teammate in the drivers’ standings.
“I think we need to speak after this race. We are over halfway of the year. The points gap is big so I’m sure the team will decide at some point.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
Read Chris Medland's articles
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.