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The absence of Lewis Hamilton allowed for a unique test for Mercedes … putting the two contenders next to each other for 2022. The conclusions could not be clearer.
George Russell made the most of the opportunity he was given. The young Briton was called in at the last minute to drive a car he never drove, with all the media pressure surrounding the absence of the seven-time world champion, in front of a much more experienced and fast driver. To all this is added the detail of fitting “just” into a cabin made for someone shorter, on a new track, with unique characteristics. Russell’s task was far from easy and risky. If everything went well, he would be on the lips of the world and his candidacy for the Mercedes position would gain more weight. If it went wrong, criticism could arise and your future could be affected by it.
Russell faced it all with impeccable posture, as always, he was brilliant on and off the track. He dominated practice, in qualifying he responded notably to the TL3 mishap (in which he stayed away from Bottas) and narrowly missed pole position. He made a race for the champion, to all adversities he responded with resistance, and on the track he showed that class that he showed in F3 and F2, especially with that overtaking of Bottas. Russell is a great talent who hasn’t shown it yet because he doesn’t have a car for it. The curse of the first point was broken, albeit in a painful way. We should be talking about a win today. But Russell was the big winner of the weekend. It opened the doors for Mercedes, which will now have little reason to further delay the # 63’s entry into the team.
Bottas … was a reflection of what his career at Mercedes has been. A shaky start, a positive response, and a failure – bad luck for the mix. The weekend started badly with a set-up difficult to achieve on Friday, but on Saturday he showed that he would not stop winning … but it did not last long. In the race he started badly again, it took him a long time to find the ideal rhythm to get close to Russell and he had no “gains” to turn the tire change upside down. Bottas was warm, flameless, without upholstery. He did not respond to adversity as Russell did. Now it is being criticized and it has been written that it does not have any quality for Mercedes.
Bottas has quality, he is not the bad pilot that everyone paints, but he lacks something to be champion. That extra tenth that is sought is missing, not from talent, but from willpower, determination and self-confidence, something difficult to have when bad luck seems to conspire against us at key moments. Bottas has quality for Mercedes but does not seem to have the mentality of a great team, a problem that has been happening since he joined the team. It’s a shame we see so much potential wasted that way, but after this race, the decision between staying with Bottas or picking up Russell is an easier one for Mercedes. Personally, he argued that next year would be the ideal year for the young man to enter. The only way for Bottas to avoid leaving in 2022 is to find Bottas 4.0 in him, capable of truly fighting for the title. Without that, you will have to look for other stops. You can’t say you missed opportunities
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