Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff has defended the performance of Valtteri Bottas during the Brazilian Grand Prix after losing out to Sebastian Vettel and also when compared to the result of teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The Finn was overtaken into Turn 1 at the start by the Ferrari driver and could never get back into a strong enough position to challenge back for the victory despite the gap between the top two never exceeding three seconds.
In contrast, Hamilton, who started from the pit-lane after a crash in qualifying, was within three seconds of Bottas by the chequered flag as he finished fourth after a rapid recovery through the field.
Wolff would admit a feeling the newly crowned world champion could have won had his tyres not worn in the closing laps, but claims evaluations between the two drivers were unfair given the different type of battle each one faced.
“I think Lewis the whole year has been rock and roll, and Valtteri has recovered slowly but still needs the tick of a killer,” said the Austrian suggesting Bottas had been a little passive.
“But you must not underestimate that in traffic against the Ferraris it was pretty difficult,” he continued. “You can see that at the end, when Ferrari switched the engine on, there was not much difference between the cars. Therefore you cannot expect easy overtakes.”
The nearest the 28-year-old came was in the pit-stop phase when Mercedes attempted the undercut, but even Wolff admitted: “It was a little move of desperation because we couldn’t get too close, and we knew that probably it lacked half a second – but nevertheless we gave it a go and the result was as expected.”
One critic who wasn’t so forgiving was outspoken 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who was far from impressed by what Bottas did.
“When you see what the Mercedes was capable of, you just have to look at Lewis and Bottas wasn’t up to pace. It’s embarrassing for Bottas,” he told Motorsport.com.
“Lewis finished around three seconds behind him when he started from the pits, it’s embarrassing. He simply is not on the pace of Hamilton. It’s been like that all year that’s his level. Which is a good number two.”
