Bottas admits he might have been able to keep Verstappen behind at start in Mexico

2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

[raceweekendpromotion]Valtteri Bottas admitted his fellow Mercedes team members may have a point when they said he could have done more to prevent Max Verstappen overtaking them at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton said his team mate “left the door open” for his championship rival at the start of the race, a view echoed by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. Verstappen swept past both Mercedes cars to take the lead of the race which he went on to win comfortably.

Bottas admitted that, in retrospect, he could have made life more difficult for Verstappen at the start.

“If I’m very honest to myself if I look back, I say it again it’s easy to say afterwards, probably I could have done things different,” he said when asked about the start by RaceFans. “But in that moment I felt I was making the right decisions.

“If I could re-live the moment maybe there was a way to block Max or prevent him going outside. Maybe he would have had a chance to go inside, I don’t know. It’s one of these things.

“At the moment I tried my best and that’s all I can do. I’ve obviously watched the videos and if I would be in a same situation again maybe I could do a better job, maybe not.”

Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin said drivers often find it harder to position their cars tactically at the start of the race than they expect to. The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez has one of the longest runs to the first braking zone on the calendar.

“It’s a very long run,” Shovlin explained. “Of all the circuits we’ve got a front row lock-out, we were worried about all the things that might go wrong at the start with tows.

“The drivers talk about how they can choreograph themselves. But the reality is, once the lights go out, it’s very difficult to stick to your plan because it’s never quite as you might imagine.”

Shovlin said the team might have been in a stronger position at the start if Hamilton, who started second behind Bottas, had made a slightly poorer start.

“It was almost unfortunate for us that Lewis got a better jump than Valtteri,” he said. “None of the actual launches were bad at all but Lewis got a good jump and that put him alongside, so he was then unable to tow off Valtteri.

“Then obviously if you watch it and you’re watching from an overhead shot, it’s very easy to look at what they could have done differently to prevent Max having that opening on the left side. But the reality is we knew that lap one would be one of vulnerabilities and it wasn’t really for bad starts, it was just the way that it all shook out. They weren’t able to block him.”

The Red Bull’s superior braking performance at the first corner also helped Verstappen complete his race-winning start, said Shovlin. “I don’t think we’re as good as them braking for turn one, Max does a very good job of that,” he said. “And ultimately, that was another area where we were a bit weak. We weren’t able to brake deep enough.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

Browse all 2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix articles

12 comments on “Bottas admits he might have been able to keep Verstappen behind at start in Mexico”

  1. A fair assessment.

  2. Was he smirking when he said it!? 😉

    1. He watched the video.

      That’s unfortunate. Oh well.

  3. petebaldwin (@)
    11th November 2021, 20:19

    It’s pretty obvious what happened – he was racing rather than simply supporting Hamilton. He got a bad start and the natural instinct is to try and keep the position rather than just trying to block a car in 3rd. He moved to the inside and by then, Max was already making his move.

    Even when I was racing karts where you obviously have a lot longer to think, the start is a bit of a blur. You just react to what’s happening around you and look for gaps. Asking him to go against his racing instincts and drive to the outside of the track when he’s being passed at the start is not something that will come naturally.

    1. That’s a pretty damn constructive and instructive comment.
      Thank you :) i’ve not thought about that point, i’ll now analyse this part on each starts !!
      Thank you sincerly 😊🙏

    2. Agreed. Both Bot and Ham were defending the center. What is not mentioned is that Sergio was ready to pounce on any opening in the middle or on the inside. That moment gave max to chance to own the left side immediately. A masterful and gutsy move by Max. I sincerely thought he was going to run wide. Impressive car control.

  4. What a misleading headline. Disappointing.

    1. What’s the ‘misleading’ part?

  5. Max didn’t need to out brake anyone in turn 1 as Bottas gave Max the racing line. In fact every other racer needed more braking in turn 1. And of course Bottas brakes so much, he was crashed. Bottas is sick of Hamilton and Mercedes and saw a chance to screw them over. His position made no sense.

    1. @jimfromus, But Max did brake as late possible as he wanted to clear Lewis who was coming from the inside. Go to the formation lap you see Max praticing bracking in that corner so he was planning that move. Driving on the raceline made it much easier….

  6. Valtteri has nothing to lose at Merc and is surely fed up with the minion treatment so why not sabotage them a bit? I fully expect him to T-bone the other Merc and wreck both championships. Godspeed, Valt.

Comments are closed.