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(Motorsport-Total.com) – “We have a push, don’t we?” Valtteri Bottas asked in the early stages of the Belgian Grand Prix in a duel against Lewis Hamilton at the top. The Mercedes driver was denied sharper engine mode by an attack on his teammate. Team boss Toto Wolff explains what’s behind the pit radio.
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Valtteri Bottas could never be dangerous for Hamilton Focus
“There are no rules for our two drivers, they are allowed to drive freely,” clarifies the Austrian first. “We agreed from the outset that we would only have a limited number of overtaking maneuvers [im schärferen Modus] and we didn’t want to use them to attack each other. “
After all, the setup could have been used for other occasions, for example to counter Max Verstappen. “That’s what we wanted to say. It was probably a misunderstanding between Valtteri and the boys. That’s why we emphasized it.”
Bottas: “Lewis did very well”
Because when Bottas asked about the extra power, his race engineer told him: “We have it, but we have agreed not to use it against ourselves.” The Finn seemed a bit irritated by this answer and said, “I’ve never heard of it before.”
These scenes took place on lap 5, when Bottas was able to turn the fastest lap with only 1.2 seconds left for Hamilton. After that, his deficit increased to around two seconds before a safety car rejoined the field on lap eleven.
“That, of course, would have been a good possibility at first,” Bottas had to admit when asked about his post-race radio message. Due to Hamilton’s tactically intelligent driving style, it kept falling out the DRS window and therefore would have benefited from a more powerful engine mode.
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Bottas continues to lose ground in the World Cup: 50 points behind! Focus
“Lewis did very well. He didn’t come out of Turn 1 that fast so I couldn’t gain momentum behind him.” He couldn’t take his chance at the start: “I had the feeling that he had come off Turn 1 better, but then I had to step on the gas to avoid hitting his butt.”
After that, he left some distance to benefit from the wake effect. But: “Today we had a tailwind at Turn 5, so the wake effect weakened.” Bottas was a bit surprised by this.
Even on the lap 15 restart, Bottas didn’t stand a chance. “I couldn’t catch him on the straight. It would have been my best chances. But Lewis drove without errors today, which makes it very difficult in the same car.” [ihn zu schlagen]. I tried.”
Bottas draws with Häkkinen
Can’t really remember the internal agreement on engine modes anymore? “Yes, I didn’t know anything! Maybe they did, but I don’t remember,” he explains. If he was actually faster than his teammate it was “impossible” to tell in hindsight.
Because: “Up front you can control your pace. You drive on a free track. If you follow behind and try to get closer, the tire wears more,” explains the Finn, who celebrated his 51st podium on Sunday and was part of it. Mika Häkkinen caught up with him.
“Overall the pace felt good, the car was very strong.” With a second radio message, Bottas also caused astonishment towards the end of the race: the Finn complained of a numb left foot. “I’m fine. Sometimes I just numb my foot a little on the brake pedal, that happened again today.”
Did that get in the way? “It’s hard to say how much it influenced me. Of course that can lead to mistakes, but I didn’t really have a big mistake today, I only had my wheels locked once.” [in der letzten Schickane]. “
Bottas was unable to make up ground over Hamilton with second place at Spa-Francorchamps, after seven races he is now 50 points behind the championship leader and three points behind Verstappen at Red Bull.
