Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has clarified his stance on his boss Toto Wolff’s ‘sensational wingman’ comment after the 2018 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Both spoke to Sky Sports F1 after the race where Wolff said the Finn deserved the podium after all the hard work he did to defend from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in the latter part of the 70-lap race.
“It feels a bit bittersweet, I don’t know why, because Valtteri would have deserved a podium because he was such a sensational wingman,” said Wolff. The Austrian referred to Bottas being the wingman as his defence allowed Lewis Hamilton to pick up an easy win.
In already a bad mood, when the Finn was told about the comment – without adding the context in which it was said, Bottas was open to state: “First of all wingman hurts. Second of all, I don’t see any positives in this race for me. I wanted a better result.
“We thought in theory we should have been able to do that one stop. We had to stop earlier than we wanted because of Kimi [Raikkonen], we had to cover him, and still 20 laps before the end everything was feeling okay.
“We could control the pace and my position, but then the rear tyres started to die. I tried to defend the best I could, as aggressive as I could, but it ended up being a bit of a mess in the end with the broken front wing and everything.
“I think we need to speak after this race. We are over halfway [through] the year and the points gap is big, but for sure the team will decide at some point.” After a breather now, the Finn has clarified his comments on the issue.
“Some out of context news [going] around,” he started. “I have not called a meeting with the bosses for Toto saying I was the perfect wingman in this race. There is no need to. I was disappointed with my end result in the race and saw everything in a negative way for a moment.
“I know what he meant. And he would have said the same about Lewis if he’d be in same situation and had a similar race. We are on equal terms and I trust the team 100 percent on that. All good. We’ll keep pushing! It’ll come.”
It was a tough afternoon for Bottas after double tangle in the race meant he was only fifth in the end. The one-stop strategy nearly worked for the Finn but for the pressure from Vettel and Raikkonen eventually got the better of him.
In the fight against Vettel, he kept second in Turn 1 but the German went for a switchback in Turn 2 when they made small contact with Bottas’ front end clipping the rear left of Vettel. The hit allowed Raikkonen to sneak through in third.
The Finn then came under pressure from Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian went for the outside line in Turn 1 but Bottas’ damaged car meant he couldn’t steer to the right on time when Ricciardo tried to make the corner.
They touched for which Bottas was handed a 10-second time penalty. The Finn was asked to give the position to Ricciardo, but he decided against it. The Australian eventually passed him in Turn 1 itself few laps later to finish fourth.
Even with the penalty, Bottas was fifth but has lost significant points in the championship fight. He sits fourth with 132 to his name while Raikkonen ahead of him has 146, with Hamilton on 213 from Vettel’s 189.