© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
The big crash between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell while fighting for P9 somewhat overshadowed the question why the Finn was in P9 in the first place.
Bottas’ Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend started on a good note as he was leading both Friday’s free practice sessions.
However on Saturday he managed to qualify only in P8, while his race was cut short when George Russell in a Williams tried to overtake him for P9, which resulted in them crashing out of the race.
But why was Valtteri so slow, while Lewis Hamilton was fighting for P1 with Max Verstappen? Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explains.
“Valtteri’s weekend was really down to a few key moments,” Shovlin said after the race.
“He did look very strong on Friday and was in a good position, very happy with the car. qualifying, he seemed to be struggling a little bit more for the tyre temperature than Lewis.
“The lap that he did in Q1, on his first run, would have put in the top four. He just couldn’t match that lap, that was the third lap on the tyres. Moving to the first lap, he wasn’t really able to match that.
“So, there’s something there we need to understand. The thing with tyre temperature, there is often a very small difference but has a very big impact on grip.
“Unfortunately for Valtteri, he was just the wrong side of a lot of cars. And that gave him a very compromised start position. So that’s one thing that we’ve got to go off and work on with him and help him understand.”
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Shovlin goes on to explain that Bottas struggled with tyre warm-up and getting the tyres in the correct temperature window, throughout the whole race.
“He was struggling following and being able to overtake just because he was losing front end in the tow. But, also, the rear wasn’t strong. Again, it was that theme of warmup was a problem for him.
“Then, on the transition to medium, the warmup meant that he got caught in that bunch of cars where some were backmarkers, and some where Max was there as a leader coming through.
“That was what really triggered the sequence that ended his race.”
However, Shovlin says there were moments when Bottas’ pace looked strong.
“So, there have been bits in the weekend where he’s definitely looked very strong. Parts where he actually looked like he was going to give Lewis a very tough time.
“And really, I think all the negatives have come down to this issue of warm up in those conditions. We need to find a solution to that.
“And I think if we do that, then the rest of it should click into place,” concluded the Briton.
