Bottas ‘disappointed with himself’ after contact

2014 Australian Grand Prix

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Valtteri Bottas admitted he was disappointed with himself after making a costly error during the Australian Grand Prix.

Bottas made contact with the wall at turn ten while trying to pass Fernando Alonso. He was able to continue in the race but only after a pit stop to replace a broken wheel.

He eventually finished sixth behind Alonso, but believed he should have been in the top five.

“I’m a little disappointed with myself because I was pushing a bit too hard and hit the wall which caused a puncture and put me back a long way,” said Bottas.

“I spent the rest of the race trying to make up for that mistake and managed to make some good overtakes, but I need to learn from this and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“We should have finished higher today than we did with the pace we had,” he added, “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do in Malaysia”.

2014 Australian Grand Prix

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Image © Williams/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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33 comments on “Bottas ‘disappointed with himself’ after contact”

  1. Man of the race for me. Easily.

    Showed real pace. Had he not started P15 together with the puncture he would’ve been on the podium.

    1. He wasn’t the man of the race, his error cost him at the end of the day.

    2. I was discussing this with a friend during the race. He also suggested VB for driver of the weekend – but then he had a poor qualifying and made an error that cost him a higher place in the race. It was a brilliant driver but not as good as KM or even DR in my view.

      1. Poor Jenson shoulda went with his head held high he will be beat by KM lol, can be nice watching LH get another pole i bet you feel the same Nick haha

    3. I like him but he made a mistake and Williams had issues managing the hype after testing, they’ve completely botched the weekend besides that Williams can still take advantage of their car in Sepang.

      1. how did they botch the weekend?

        bottas gearbox change not the teams fault
        qualified a few paces lower than they should’ve
        massa rear ended
        bottas tapping the wall

        the only thing there is getting slightly caught out by the wet qualifying and they still scored more points in this one race than in the entire year last year.

    4. If you can tell me how Bottas had a better race than Magnussen then I’ll agree, because it seems clear cut that one driver made a costly mistake and the other was flawless.

      Anyway, it’s good that drivers are starting to make mistakes again with these cars. They seem harder to drive and tail happy, and that’s a good thing – only as long as we don’t go too far as in ’94 of course.

      1. Just the fact he could not catch the RB all race long. Especially the side-fact that Jenson came from 10th on the grid to finish right behind him. Magnussen did a stellar job and I’m happy he is in that car.

        But for me making a mistake, which also a certain four-times world champion made, doesn’t mean Bottas his performance was any less. He came from 15th, made a superb start. Started overtaking a lot of cars, some very experienced drivers. Taking RAI around the outside to hunt down ALO. He touched the wall but held strong to finish behind Alonso still doing his entire race twice. Without once setting a foot wrong or making a unthoughtfull move on another racer. Without the mistake, who knows where he could’ve finished.

        You can disagree of course. I did wrote ‘…. for me’.

        1. @ardenflo Hi Sam. Thanks for your reply. Actually you make quite a strong case for Bottas to be honest for the race. Starting 15th he did very well, although it remains to be seen just how quick that Williams is – I think its probably faster than the Ferrari at the moment but let’s see.

          I still disagree, but now only just :)

  2. It was so frustrating to see him have such a good run and, seemingly, throw it all away with such a simple and avoidable mistake.

    He did a good job to claw his way back through the field after the Safety Car, but I can’t help but wonder how many points he’d have gotten without hitting the wall.

    1. @magnificent-geoffrey
      I think he would have been between Button and Alonso, maybe even in front of Button. The brush with the wall was pretty unlucky it has to be said, plenty of people have done the same thing and gotten away with it. Still, I expect Williams to be even stronger in Malaysia (as long as it doesn’t rain), so hopefully he’ll get another chance.

  3. And rightly so. Williams is second quickest car in the field, as was alluded by Button in his interview with Sky about one team not showing what they are capable of today.

  4. It was a shame he hit the wall but he can be excused as he didn’t take anyone out and because this is only his second season in F1 and he’s bound to make some mistakes. As long as he learns from this and doesn’t make the mistake again I can see a few podiums heading his way this year, and maybe even a win if he gets a bit of luck. Williams are looking good, they might be on for a podium in Malaysia. Would’ve liked to have seen what Massa could have done today too.

  5. The look on Claire williams face when Bottas hit the wall was priceless.

    1. @howard Hahaha gave me a good laugh aswell

  6. Mr win or lose
    16th March 2014, 11:37

    Bottas’ poor qualify performance and his great race-pace clearly point to a dry-weather setup, which was probably the right thing to do. Although the result is a little disappointing, the performance of the car is very promising.

    1. Really? You have to wonder what set up Mercedes or RBR (penalty excepted) were running, dry or wet?

      1. Mr win or lose
        16th March 2014, 13:57

        Somewhere in-between I guess.

    2. I don’t think theres much difference between the setups nowadays, though the onboard with Bottas did seem to have a noise which sounded like it was bottoming out, so its possible. Even during testing the people watching were saying that the Williams was very pointy and looked great in the dry but suspected it’d be a handful in the wet.

      Still, as a Williams fan it feels great to see genuine pace in the car, even if the race didn’t go as well as hoped.

  7. I’m so happy for Williams nonetheless.
    For a while it looked like it was going to be another one of those disappointing moments in their recent history, but a good recovery from Bottas made up for his earlier error.

  8. A diamond in the rough for sure, he could certainly use some polishing as seen from his contact with the wall this weekend but his raw pace is undeniable, and being able to overtake several cars twice is commendable… much like Vettel in 2009-2010, he can be a future WDC if he can iron out such mistakes.

  9. Influence of Maldonado…

  10. He-he. Do not try to overtake Alonso in that place. Bottas, you should watch an Aus-2012.
    Strong performance of the team is destroyed by a racer. Poor Claire Williams.

    1. Better a racer than the pay-driver they had in 2012, who broke a bit more than a wheel on the previous decent Williams.

      I’d rather see this guy having a go than people as good as Alonso droning round, waiting for the stops while the team manages fuel, tyres and excitement.

      Proper racer, great clean overtaking. He benefited a bit from his own safety car…but good approach to learning from mistakes and moving on as well.

  11. I think people are being overly harsh on Bottas. It was a really minor hit, people have been hitting it the wall there all weekend (many times harder than Bottas did there). I seem to recall Kimi and Vettel both hit it harder than that in earlier sessions and got away with it. Actually part of me is wondering whether the FIA will have gone down and talked to Williams about their wheels. A hit like that causing a puncture is one thing, but causing the wheel to break? Maybe Williams needs to have a good look at the strength of them.

    He really does seem the opposite of Maldonado in terms of personality though. He came straight out and admitted it was his fault and clearly feels guilty about it. Great drive nonetheless, even with that little accident. Just wish I could have seen what would have happened if Massa had been in the race too!

  12. Scores best ever F1 result, and is disappointed with it.

    Williams should have come away with far more points than they did today. Bottas drove great in the race bar his brush with the wall, which did cost him quite a lot, could well have fought with Jenson for 4th3rd place.

    Massa was simply unlucky to get one of the two forms of being KK-ed, although he wasn’t at fault.

    They look quick in a straight line too. Malaysia may suit them better as well.

    1. If he hadn’t hit the wall he would have already been in front of Jensen, so I suspect he’d have been fighting with Ricciardo and Magnusson

  13. Great drive from Bottas. No need of being so harsh on himself.

    That hit reminded me of Hamilton hitting the wall in Monaco 2008, getting a puncture and then winning the race thanks to a safety car just after the pit stop and some amazing driving in the wet.

    For Bottas, the hit happened, the safety car also happened but nothing after that. Never mind, great race.

  14. Awesome drive from Bo77as. It was certainly the most exiting driver to watch. We will see him on podium soon.

  15. I don’t really think I’ve seen Bottas make a mistake. So he got that one out of the way. I think he is starting to prove he is the real deal.

  16. Bo77as was really the one to Watch yesterday, It reminded me Vettel in Abu Dhabi Last Year. Pleased to see Williams out there in Front Again. On a good Day they will be threat to Many and if possible to Mercedes as well. Looking forward to see what they come up with in Kuala Lumpur

  17. Mistake notwithstanding, VB was easily the driver of the race, if not the weekend. I think Hamilton’s performance in Q3 makes him the driver of the weekend, but Bottas drove a BRILLIANT race regardless of the small error in turn 10. The overtaking he accomplished was amazing. The pace and aggression he showed were stellar. The only other drivers who came close to driving as well were Button and Magnusson, but Bottas had far more to overcome and did so. He made up ten spots, then after falling back due to the puncture, made up a bunch more. Let’s be honest, his mistake was tiny. This wasn’t a Kobayashi or Grosjean type error. This wasn’t Kimi locking up the brakes on every lap. This wasn’t a glaring, stupid mistake. This was a matter of a few inches at 200km/h. He drove like a genius.

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