Wolff: Bottas 'slept' in sluggish French GP
Toto Wolff has indicated Valtteri Bottas needs to put his foot back down on the throttle.
After a bad 2018, Bottas emerged this year with a new look, a new attitude and impressive new form.
But as the season reaches its mid-way point, Bottas is once again showing signs of slumping against a resurgent Lewis Hamilton and rumours Esteban Ocon could take his place for 2020.
"Is he feeling the pressure from Lewis? I hope not, even if in the duel with Leclerc he slept a little bit," Mercedes team boss Wolff is quoted at Paul Ricard by Sky Italia.
Bottas was notably despondent after the French GP, admitting the performance gap to Hamilton was too big.
But the Finn insisted: "He's not unbeatable, I know that. I just need to work hard."
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I think that Hamilton is pretty much heading for the 6th title unless something unexpected happens, so Bottas might be able to catch him up. At least Vettel must know that his chance for this years title has slipped away and he can finally relax and just drive his Ferrari as well as he is allowed to, considering that Ferraris have failed to produce car that can truly challenge the Mercedes. I certainly am of the opinion that French Grand Prix was is actually a mistake and the track is so badly designed and those blue lines are mind confusing and distractive and many would agree on this point.
I agree. The French Circuit does not make for easy watching and it was an extremely boring race to watch, although from a personal point of view it's good to see McLaren starting to see light at the end of a long tunnel.
I'd like to see Ferrari focus mainly on their 2020 car now and use the rest of this year to fix the shortcomings in the team and rebuild morale. There's little doubt that the aero package is the big deficit with the car and once that die is cast it's very hard to make changes that impact positively when the actual concept is the problem. If they get it right there's no reason they can't compete with the Mercs next year.
I slept too, rather than watch another boring race.
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