It has been a disappointing start to the campaign for Valtteri Bottas, as the Finn was upset having finished third behind his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The Finn raised concern as soon as the race at Sakhir concluded regarding the improvement Red Bull has made this season.
Last year’s driver’s championship runners-up Valtteri expressed Red Bull’s RB16B is the fastest car on the track till now this year, given how Max dominated the Sakhir Grand Prix in all pre-testing as well as the final qualification. Bottas also suggested that Mercedes need to be flawless and improve their W12 in order to catch up to Red Bull this season.
3rd in Bahrain 🏆
1/23. We’ll keep working hard 🏁#VB77 #F1 @MercedesAMGF1
📷 S.Etherington pic.twitter.com/TYYW3IeSdF— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) March 28, 2021
The 31-year-old driver conveyed in a post-match interview, “We don’t have the fastest car at the moment, we need to be perfect in every other area. But we obviously want to have the fastest car as well, so we need to keep working.”
Bottas, as he complained, stated that the strategy didn’t go down too well with the Finn and he had to resort to P3 at Sakhir.
The 31-year-old Mercedes driver further asserted, “As a team, if we were told in winter testing that we’re going to be two cars in the top three, one of them winning the race and getting more points than Red Bull, we definitely would have taken this.”
Valtteri Bottas anticipates an imminent Red Bull threat
As the first race of the season has concluded, Mercedes amassed a total of 41 points and is currently at P1, followed by Red Bull’s 28. However, Bottas speculates, this lead might turn upside-down if the Black Arrows don’t pull up their socks while there’s still time.
Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas taking the first and third position while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is at P2. (Image courtesy: Formula One’s official Twitter handle)
The former Williams driver’s concern is justified as Red Bull Racing is the hot favorite to win this year’s Formula One Constructor’s Championship alongside Mercedes AMG F1.
With the Milton Keynes-based team’s Max Verstappen in supreme form, the VB77 believes the Dutchman can overtake him and then finally dethrone Lewis Hamilton to take the driver’s Championship if Mercedes don’t improve their strategy and performance in the meantime.
Read More: “Disappointed” Valtteri Bottas’ dream dies with P3 at Bahrain Grand Prix 2021
