Mercedes boss Toto Wolff expects Valtteri Bottas to come back “stronger” after his first 2019 setback in Monaco.
The German manufacturer’s run of 1-2 finishes came to a halt in Monte Carlo after a pit-lane incident with Max Verstappen dropped the Finn down to fourth.
Though eventually making it back onto the podium, his third place means teammate Lewis Hamilton is now 17 points ahead in the Drivers’ standings.
“Valtteri 2019 is going to get out of this stronger,” the Austrian told Crash.net.
“He has shown huge resilience and determination in these last races. His speed was mind-blowing in qualifying and I have no doubt that this will annoy the hell out of him and he’s going to come back strong, very very strong, in Montreal.”
But whereas an incident like the one with Max might have had a lasting impact on Bottas last season, Wolff is confident that won’t be the case this time.
“Max lost a position because of the penalty and because of the manoeuvre, and Valtteri lost the second place, three points more lost, and Mercedes lost the 1-2,” Toto noted.
“From the team’s point of view we are super happy with the 1-3. From Valtteri’s point, he will be gutted.
“He had the pace this weekend. He could’ve had pole in terms of raw speed and in the race P2 was the minimum I think.
“He was feeling this was taken away from him.”
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With the new F1 record of five consecutive 1-2 finishes for a team now over, it also gave the Mercedes chief chance to reflect on that remarkable stretch of success.
“What you can see is that teams have stopped winning once they had the sense of entitlement, and once they believed it was completely normal,” Wolff explained.
“It is not normal. One and twos, even one and threes, are not normal for the highest competition in motor racing and that’s why we are constantly expecting to hit bumps.
“That’s why we take the one and three and just continue to push flat out for the next one.”
The team was also thanking their lucky stars in the case of Hamilton, after a tyre strategy error that would have had big consequences elsewhere.
“We were close to losing. I think that going back to normal racetracks we need to accept in terms of tyre life, we need to learn from Monaco and understand why that was.
“This situation in Montreal, you would lose the race.”