Spanish Grand Prix: Valtteri Bottas claims underwear weakens him as a driver
Valtteri Bottas claims he lost 3 kgs during the Spanish Grand Prix and has slammed a new underwear rule for causing him to fall down the finishing order.
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Valtteri Bottas complained that Mercedes’ decision to wear black overalls as a political statement weakened him as a driver at the torrid Spanish Grand Prix.
After the race, he also let off steam about a new rule requiring drivers to wear thicker underwear.
Mercedes has switched from white overalls to a black to match the ‘end racism’ livery of their cars.
With track heat measured at 50 degrees Celsius, the Finn told his team in a radio message laced with an obscenity that “the black overalls are f*****g hot”.
As Bottas perspired, his teammate Lewis Hamilton remained largely serene en route to a career 88th triumph.
After a poor start, the Finnish driver, still chasing his first world title, mounted a strong comeback, but was unable to catch Hamilton, a six-time champion, or second-placed Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
Bottas finished third, but said the effort he put in combined with the heat and the black overalls had drained him.
“Obviously, we have changed the colour of the overalls and it’s known that black takes more of the heat, especially when there’s direct sun,” he said.
“I don’t know any numbers or facts, or how much it is actually black versus white, in terms of temperature difference, but this year it’s been really hot in the car,” Bottas said.
“Also there’s new homologation this year for the overalls so they are thicker and the underwear is thicker. I don’t know how much affect that has, but it was just so hot.”
“I lost three kilos in the race, which is quite a lot,” he said. “So that already can start to affect performance. I know that, from the all the drivers, I’m one of the fittest, so I can take it, but it’s never comfortable and there’s always things that we can improve.
“It was really hot in the car and I felt that since this year it’s been even hotter,” he said.
Hamilton won by 24 seconds ahead of Verstappen and afterwards said he had felt as if in a trance as he drove to victory.
“It’s not an out of body experience,” he said. “I just think I was in my highest form, I would say.”
VETTEL SHOULD HAVE QUIT YEARS AGO
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said he had no problem with Max Verstappen’s feisty words with the team on his way to second place behind Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Dutchman, who confirmed his second position in the title race behind the six-time champion, produced several rants on team radio as he raced round the Circuit de Catalunya.
“What’s incredible is he’s got so much capacity to have that conversation,” said Horner, amazed the boisterous Verstappen could find the mental space to drive and argue with the team at the same time.
“It’s like he’s on a Sunday afternoon drive!”
Verstappen said he was not apologetic for his robust words during the race as he complained about his tyres and moaned about his team’s misguided messages to him.
“Do you want me to repeat it again? This tyre is dead,” said Verstappen as he asked for an early pit-stop.
me waiting for max verstappen to pipe up on team radio so i can enjoy something about this race #wtf1 pic.twitter.com/sBWVmIAmcM
— 🥀 (@monteclerc) August 16, 2020
max verstappen driver of the day because of the team radio
— amaya (@mevamaya) August 16, 2020
Later, he added: “How about we just focus on our race first instead of looking to Lewis?”
The team replied calmly, telling him to “get his head down” and concentrate on the race.
“I just wanted to pit,” Verstappen explained.
“I think we should not really look to the Mercedes cars and we should do our strategy, but then we pitted and got onto the medium tyre and basically from then onwards it was fine.
“We were slower than Lewis, but I could keep Valtteri (Bottas) behind so everything worked out quite well. It was good to split the two Mercedes. I didn’t have the pace like Lewis, but I’m happy with second.
“At the end of the day you can’t control what they’re doing.
“The only thing you can control is what we do. So we just have to make sure that we did the fastest strategy possible for us.
“I wanted to pit, and they didn’t call me in, so I was massively struggling on the tyres. I lost quite a bit of lap time over the last two laps.
“I already said on the radio, ‘I don’t care if you pit me behind the Racing Points because I would pass them easily anyway because we are faster, especially on new tyres’.
🗣"We should do our fastest strategy"
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 16, 2020
Max Verstappen managed to split the Mercedes in Barcelona, and take another podium finish for Red Bull.#SkyF1 | #F1
Verstappen's angry radio is the only fun thing about this race
— expert on everythingâ„¢ (@CharsiBhangi) August 16, 2020
He said it had been critical to pass Bottas at the start, but added he expected a close battle with him and Mercedes in the weeks ahead.
“We keep trying to improve,” he said. “But they keep pushing too so we’ll see.” Horner said he was not upset by Verstappen’s radio rants.
“He obviously doesn’t have the visibility of the whole picture that the strategists have and he’s ambitious, competitive and he’s pushing.”
At the finish, Hamilton was 24 seconds clear of Verstappen with Bottas third. “Our race wasn’t about Lewis today,” said Horner.
“It was about keeping Valtteri behind us -- Max got everything he could out of the car and to split Mercedes, who had a quicker car than us today, I don’t think we could have got more than that.”
That radio message is why Verstappen is brilliant for F1.
— Matt Gallagher (@MattyWTF1) August 9, 2020
GO GET EM LAD!!!
Verstappen is now 37 points behind Hamilton in the championship and Horner, like many fans, said he hopes to see some close battles between them.
“I think they are the two in-form drivers of Formula One and there’s very little to choose between them,” Horner said.
“It’s interesting. You have Max, who’s 22, Lewis who’s 35, and they’re at different stages of their career, but I’m hopeful in the coming races that we see the two of them go head to head.
“It’s what the viewers would love to see. It’s what the teams would love to see and I think it would be good for F1.”
RESULTS
1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 1h 31:45.279,
2. Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull-Honda) 24.177,
3. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 44.752,
4. Lance Stroll (CAN/Racing Point-Mercedes) 1 lap,
5. Sergio Pérez (MEX/Racing Point-Mercedes) 1 lap,
6. Carlos Sainz (ESP/McLaren-Renault) 1 lap,
7. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) 1 lap
8. Alexander Albon (THA/Red Bull-Honda) 1 lap,
9. Pierre Gasly (FRA/AlphaTauri-Honda) 1 lap,
10. Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren-Renault) 1 lap,
11. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Renault) 1 lap,
12. Daniil Kvyat (RUS/AlphaTauri-Honda) 1 lap,
13. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Renault) 1 lap,
14. Kimi Räikkönen (FIN/Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari) 1 lap,
15. Kevin Magnussen (DEN/Haas-Ferrari) 1 lap,
16. Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA/Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari) 1 lap,
17. George Russell (GBR/Williams-Mercedes) 1 lap,
18. Nicholas Latifi (CAN/Williams-Mercedes) 2 laps,
19. Romain Grosjean (FRA/Haas-Ferrari) 2 laps
Fastest lap: Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 1:18.183 on 66th lap
DNF: Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari)
LEWIS IN A LEAGUE OF HIS OWN
Lewis Hamilton said he was in a “beautiful” trance on Sunday as he raced to another record-breaking triumph to open up a 37-point lead in this year’s drivers’ championship at the Spanish Grand Prix.
His Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, one of Formula One’s greatest pragmatists, agreed, but he put it another way after the six-time champion’s unprecedented 156th podium finish was confirmed with his 88th victory.
“At the moment, I have to say that he drives in a league of his own,” said Wolff.
“I was in a daze, just another zone,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton’s success was his fourth in consecutive years in Spain and fifth in seven years at the Circuit de Catalunya - a remarkable feat by him and his team after last Sunday’s defeat by Red Bull and Max Verstappen at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.
“It was really hard work,” Hamilton said.
“Firstly, the heat is crazy... And then there is everything else - the start, the tyres... You can lose all the hard work that goes into qualifying at the start.
“I was conscious of that and I practice so much for the start - and today it was really sweet and I was away off the line and perfectly straight. After that, it was about managing the tyres and I had the settings spot on.
“We didn’t know how quick they (Red Bull) would be so in the early laps I was just trying to get the measure of them and let things stabilise and let the tyres last for me - the difference today was tyre management.
“At the end, I had a safe gap and the medium tyre was safest tyre to put on. I must say today the guys all did a fantastic job - everyone back at the factory, the whole team, everyone here... It was really one of our top, top performances.
“And it is a lot closer than people think in the drivers standings. Max is right with us, but today I was just in such a different headspace in the car. It was a beautiful feeling, lap by lap, a great feeling -- the best I have had in a long time.” - ‘Total control’ - Wolff added his own tribute to the work of the Mercedes team in transforming an unexpected defeat - due to blistering and worn tyres in sweltering conditions at Silverstone - into a comfortable victory.
“I think what makes me most happy is that after such a difficult week at Silverstone, we have recovered and won in the same kind of conditions.
“It’s down to the great work done in the factory, by all the team on the engineering side and it shows the strength of the team.” Talking of Hamilton, he said he was amazed at his understanding and decision-making in the car - controlling and switching the engine to preserve mileage for a later date, choosing his own tyres for his second pit stop and looking after the tyres.
“He was totally in control, he has such instinctive feeling and understanding,” he said.
WEIRD RECORD
Kimi Raikkonen on Sunday became the driver to have raced the greatest distance in Formula One history when he completed his 37th lap of the 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix won by Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes.
Raikkonen, in an Alfa Romeo, finished 14th, one lap down, but had achieved a statistical landmark that was the equivalent of driving two laps of the world, round the equator.
He exceeded the previous record of 83,846km, according to his team, when he finished lap 37.
The previous record-holder was his former Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso. Last Sunday, during the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone, Raikkonen became the driver to have completed the most laps with 16,845 in his career, passing the previous record held by seven-time champion Michael Schumacher.
Raikkonen, 40, won the world title with Ferrari in 2007 and on Saturday secured his best start of the season by qualifying 14th on the grid for Alfa Romeo.
The famously taciturn Finn was not impressed, however, and said he could have done better with another run on softer tyres.
And after the race, showing no interest in his statistical achievement, he said: “We were a bit faster than last week, but I was hoping for better. We kept trying and I think we’re going in the right direction.”