Valtteri Bottas responded to Toto Wolff’s radio interruption in Qatar, saying that the team boss was just animated at Qatar.
Bottas’ Qatar GP was an absolute shambles. He dropped to P11 after a terrible start, and then retired from the race due to persistent tyre issues. While his teammate was dominating at the front of the pack, the Finn struggled to do anything noteworthy in the early stages.
This led to Wolff coming on radio and trying to encourage him. He said, “Come on, Valtteri, get these cars,” almost in an annoyed mood.
Bottas responded to Wolff’s radio interruption in Qatar, and said that he had no problem with it even though it came as a surprise.
“It’s normal. He’s living in the moment. It’s while I was trying to make a move,” he said, as quoted by GP Fans.
“It was surprising then when I get the (message). Maybe the timing was not right, but no problem.
“(At the start, there was) just no grip. On the formation lap, I didn’t feel like I didn’t build in enough tyre temp, and on top of that, being on the dirty side of the grid, in the first three corners I was just skating around. There was no grip. I couldn’t keep the momentum up.
“It was tricky but then things were better, the pace was okay. Everything was feeling normal, no vibration, no loss of grip and then the puncture.”
Puncture wound
Bottas also gave his thoughts on the tyres ending his race and said that it came out of nowhere.
“I don’t know what happened,” he continued.
“There was no warning, no vibration, the pace was feeling consistent, the grip was okay. I didn’t run any wider in the kerbs. It just happened.
“Initially I thought the wind was getting stronger on the main straight, but it felt like the car was stable. Then it punctured in the first corner, in the most unlucky point as well just after the pit exit,” he concluded.
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