Valtteri Bottas goes through how the F1 Monaco GP debrief was, as he was a bit surprised by Toto Wolff’s comments, while he added on the difficult start.
It was quite the journey for Bottas to make it into Baku, as he had a special press conference from an airport in Finland, after his initial flight was cancelled and he had to wait to hop to another one and eventually make it in, late in the evening.
From Finland, though, Bottas reflected on the Monaco GP weekend and the disaster for the Finn, which further hurt his F1 title chances. He discussed on what Mercedes found about the stop and also elaborated on how the debrief went at Monte Carlo.
“The main thing first was it was nice to hear when we got it off, so it’s off,” said Bottas in his special press conference. “And of course we as a team had to maximise the learning from it. There was a detailed analysis, of course, you know what happened, why it happened, how can we prevent that never happen again in the future.
“So it’s really all about learning the issue and correcting it so yeah I think the team fully understands it now and we’ve made corrections for that and hopefully we don’t have to experience it again. We always analyse everything very really openly and definitely like not blaming any people but really analysing things honestly and admitting weaknesses, which was the pit stop and as a matter of fact, it was one of my concerns already a few weeks ago, that I raised with the team.
“So it didn’t come from somewhere out of the blue, we knew that we are not perfect in pit stops as we’ve seen, and also other areas like tyre warm up in qualifying. I knew coming to Monaco that it is going to be an issue and it was one of the things that I highlighted much before the weekend. And yes we analysed, everything in detail and we know that we probably could have done a better job as a team, and with the pit stop of course, you know, it was very normal, debrief from from my side.
“Of course I want to see all the reports about where I stopped and I think I was like two or three centimetres off the central line. And if you get that accuracy normally, it’s pretty good. You can easily swing by 10/15 centimetres so I thought it was pretty spot on. It’s pretty normal debrief, to be honest and of course we had discussions the week after, still with my engineers, analysing everything and at the factory they’ve been full gas, understanding everything.
“So it is nothing unusual for us, it was just a bigger setback than some other weekends in terms of result but pretty normal procedure otherwise,” summed up Bottas, who was surprised that Wolff mentioned about him stopping a bit early and slightly off.
Wolff did not speak about to English media, but when speaking to Germany’s AMuS, the Austrian went through the sequence of the events, where he mentioned about Bottas stopping a bit early and slightly off. He termed it as a ‘mutli-faceted’ event.
It surprised Bottas, when he read about it, but hasn’t spoken with Wolff. “Yes, I was surprised,” he said. “I saw the video, and for me it was pretty spot on, where I stopped, so I was quite surprised. Did I talked to Toto? About that, no, not really. I left it there.”
Talking about the difficult start and getting over the disaster, Bottas admitted that it did take him few days to get back into the normal mode. In general, as well, it has been taxing for him with multiple issues, but he adds that he is ready to fight back as much.
“Personally, for me, it took a couple of days, I have to say, because it’s not been the best start of the season, and that kind of an issue, you know, when it hits you,” said Bottas. “And obviously when you’re target is to is to get some good points, it’s disappointing. But I’m not worried, I’ll find my way through it and I’m keen to race again.
“In my case my beginning of the season, definitely the mental strength has been tested, it has not been the easiest ride to start with, you know, in the last few races having two DNFS and so yeah, I would say there’s been setbacks, and it’s all about how you bounce back from from those and how you, move forward, because the losers option, is to give up.
“And it’s not something I’m going to do, so I’m still keeping very strong, strong mentally and knowing that it’s a long, long season ahead and for sure many good battles to come and, hopefully many wins so I have full belief in myself and for us as a team that we still have time to do good things,” summed up Bottas.
Here’s Mercedes detaching the wheel
Here’s full explanation from James Vowles on Valtteri Bottas & Lewis Hamilton
Here’s Valtteri Bottas, Toto Wolff and James Allison on pit debacle
Here’s Nico Rosberg on feeling for Toto Wolff, now that he is a team boss too
