Valtteri Bottas says it was “a different feeling” at the Sakhir Grand Prix without Lewis Hamilton, as he was now “the older guy”.
Lewis Hamilton was forced to miss the Sakhir Grand Prix due to being diagnosed with COVID-19. The Briton was replaced by the 22-year-old George Russell which meant that Valtteri Bottas, for the first time in his career, was now “the older guy” in the team.
“It was a different feeling, I’ve never been in a team being the older guy,” explained the Finn to Autosport.
“But in the end as a driver, you just want to do the best job in any case for the race weekend, and it doesn’t matter who is you team-mate, you always want to beat him.
“Friday I think was not great for me, due to different reasons, broken floor in practice one, bit of a crack in the floor in practice two, so not really ideal.”
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
Bottas says he didn’t feel he had a “massive responsibility” to help newcomer Russell, as he had a good team around him.
“Set-up wise, we raced here last week. There was a lot we learned, so there were minimal things we had to change.
“I think George also pretty much started with Lewis’s set-up for the weekend, so there were not massive things to do. He’s got his engineers, so for sure they know what to do with the car.
“I didn’t feel like there was a massive responsibility, because if there was anything I could change and give directions, I was trying to do that.
“It was pretty straightforward,” concluded the Finn.
