Yep, Lewis had that issue last year with Max.
It is ironic that precisely on this circuit (2016) Ferrari lost the race cause they did a terrible strategy during the red flag.
Baring an issue, I think this will be unlikely.
Trust me, I'm praying that too. But I actually think Bottas isn't half bad (just as Rosberg was better than most people still give him credit for). And assuming that Bottas isn't that bad, you never know, especially on a street circuit. And I am still open to the idea that the Mercedes might not totally be invulnerable to problems on the US tire, so it just might not be a smooth sailing. It's just a feeling I have, that's all. And I'm doing this prediction not based on logic, but with a bit of fun. And GPs often can be quite unpredictable. The quickest driver or fastest car might not always win.
I agree, but stuff like this makes it sound like he knows he isn't up to the task when you read between the lines.
“Lewis is a great driver and I should never get upset if he is quicker than me at times. Then I just need to accept it and learn from those,”
Notice how he said challenge, not beat.“I know the team, I learned a lot last year and it’s entirely up to me to perform. I think for me to secure a long-term relationship with the team I need results, I need performance, week in, week out, I need to be able to challenge Lewis. That’s it; it’s completely up to me.”
I think he has realized that he won´t beat Lewis unless he starts to make mistakes in many races. Bottas is a fine driver but he is not as fast and constant as Nico was.dans79 wrote: ↑14 Mar 2018, 17:33I agree, but stuff like this makes it sound like he knows he isn't up to the task when you read between the lines.
https://www.crash.net/f1/news/891534/1/ ... s-beats-me
“Lewis is a great driver and I should never get upset if he is quicker than me at times. Then I just need to accept it and learn from those,”Notice how he said challenge, not beat.“I know the team, I learned a lot last year and it’s entirely up to me to perform. I think for me to secure a long-term relationship with the team I need results, I need performance, week in, week out, I need to be able to challenge Lewis. That’s it; it’s completely up to me.”
he's also not dirty, stating he wouldn't resort to those tactics as his predecessor did.
That's why if I were in FER or RB I would try to split strategies and do a SS (or US)-S race with one car and try to nurse the tyres as much as possible
Not to drag this discussion in wrong direction, but what people conveniently forget before concluding that Nico was good and Bottas is comparably bad, is that, with the kind of qualifying margin that Mercedes had on the next best team (from 2014-16), even when Nico qualified half a second behind Lewis, he only started second as the rest of the field was more than 6 to 8 tenths behind the pole time. With that, except for Nico, there was no one there to take advantage when Lewis had problems at the start. Bottas didn't get that kind of advantage with a difficult car last year and Ferrari was as close as 2 or 3 tenths behind on pole time.
Here we go again. I've heard the same nonsense with Rosberg 3 or 4 times and look how it turned out. What were you watching last year? Bottas disappared after Merc de facto cllinched WCC around emberssement of Hungary and "came back" when they got DC. A miracle or running on hype farce of a sport where corporation overpaying 30+ million a driver can't be emberassed like in '16.