Valtteri Bottas struggled on the hard tyres but managed to eke out a point in F1 Mexico GP, as Zhou Guanyu had to aide his teammate too.
The weekend in F1 Mexico GP was looking strong for Alfa Romeo where Bottas was consistently inside the Top 10. He qualified well too and started the grand prix in a good position but the pace started to go down especially on the hard tyres.
It was a common theme where the strategy of medium-soft worked better rather than medium-hard or soft-medium. The Finn didn’t feel the pace across the race distance where he had to fight hard to keep himself in the points which he desperately wanted.
It has been a low-key period for not only Bottas but Alfa Romeo as a whole where the Finn hasn’t scored since Canada, while the team didn’t since Italy. In the meantime, Aston Martin have scored in abundance and has closed the gap to them in the fight for sixth.
“For sure I was hoping for more, from where we started but the race pace wasn’t quite there and especially, we had difficulties on the hard tyre just to keep it up in a good temperature, that was a tricky thing – especially on the front axle – so just sliding around a bit, and it was not easy,” said Bottas to media.
“In the beginning, with the medium compound, it felt like we were faster so for sure that helped, but I don’t know it was still a struggle towards the end with the hard tyre. Absolutely, it’s a clear improvement and we try to keep this momentum and keep scoring more than Aston,” summed up Bottas.
The Finn was ably supported by teammate Guanyu, who had to compromise his race while fighting the pair of the Alpine cars which is why the Chinese racer was out of points contention. “I mean, overall it’s been quite a good weekend; messy from my side,” said Gunayu. “I struggled a little bit compared to Valtteri, but this track is definitely quite tricky, quite slippery.
“I think in the race, the consistency, everything was good compared to Austin. I tried to play the team game, and I had a good stint in the mid-part with the medium. It was going well and then after I tried to give Valtteri some positions with the Alpine, which I was happy to compromise a little bit my race.
“But it was a bit frustrating in the end because I was so close to being ahead of this DRS train and unfortunately stuck behind and then it was hard to overtake them,” summed up Guanyu, whose role was trying to slow down the chasing pack to aide Bottas ahead.