Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas said he was upset at the end of the Grand Prix by his result, believing that his team should have allowed him to carry out a more aggressive strategy against Red Bull.
Set back from the two protagonists, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen , the Finn not only inherited a bad strategy but also had to suffer the throes of a bad tire change made by his mechanics, a stop that cost him no less than 10 seconds late.
“It’s disappointing, that’s for sure. It’s a good race for the team because we got some big points, but from my side, in terms of strategy, we chose to defend instead of attack, which surprised me. This is not normal. I could have hoped for better,” Bottas said.
Mercedes boss Wolff is disappointed with the loss of the morning session, although it’s not as if Mercedes are completely behind.
“It wasn’t a good start because of a gearbox issue that came out of nowhere, which we haven’t been able to identify and understand. If we’re able to have a smoother ride from here onwards, I think we can recover.” Wolff said.
The Austrian admitted that the German team had no other option in Bahrain, especially after seeing Charles Leclerc pass Bottas.
“There was no other strategy possible. We also tried the undercut with Valtteri, I think that could have changed the outcome of his race.
“What we didn’t want to see was the loss of a starting position. Bottas couldn’t close the gap to the two leading drivers.
“His pit stop was timed to undercut Max and we probably would have made it if not for a problem with the right front wheel gun.” Wolff said.
