Bottas Reveals Flaws in Mercedes Tactics

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas believed that his tyres would last until the end of the British Grand Prix. So, he trusted Mercedes’ call to not pit under the late Safety Car to gain track position.

The Finn inherited the lead from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel when the German driver pitted during the late race Safety Car. It had been called out due to Marcus Ericsson’s high speed shunt.

Bottas had pitted for fresh medium tyres on lap 21 and were supposed to last 31 laps in theory. But, despite a second Safety Car period, the Finn’s tyres gave up with five laps to go.

Valtteri confessed that he had to produce ‘qualifying laps to keep ahead’ of Vettel. Sadly, the level of tyre degradation was grossly miscalculated by the team. As a result, he dropped from first to fourth place by the chequered flag.

“Afterwards, it’s easy to say we should have pitted, to at least keep the position. We took a risk to be first but ended up fourth. Five laps too much,” Bottas said. “It was definitely a possibility to go to the end.

“In practice I didn’t do any long runs with the mediums but from our calculations, it should have been okay. But it wasn’t.

“I was trying everything I could to stay ahead. I had to push qualifying laps to keep ahead. The tyres degrade quicker, I tried my best but it was not enough.”

The final race of the frustrating triple-header was over at last for Bottas. His French Grand Prix was wrecked by a first-lap clash with Vettel, where he finished seventh. He later a mechanical retirement last week at the Austrian Grand Prix.

With Max Verstappen having problems of his own and retiring, Bottas has moved up to fifth place in the championship.