Baku Heartbreak will make Bottas Stronger

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has admitted that the heartbreak of losing a sure-fire first win in Baku will only make him stronger.

The Finn led in Baku for a fairly sizeable amount of time. Just when things seemed to swing in his favour, with three laps to go he suffered a tyre blow out. As it turned out Bottas’ W09 ran over some debris and cost him both a win and the chance to lead the world championship.

But despite the heart-wrenching disappointment, Bottas still remains confident that he will come back in better form.

“Of course it was disappointing, but life and especially motorsport includes disappointments,” said Bottas.

“I always find that disappointment can be your best opportunity to be stronger if you take it the right way. So I am planning to be even stronger next weekend and for the rest of the year.”

Mercedes seem to be playing catch up to Ferrari at the moment, but Bottas thinks that the finer details will actually make a big difference in the end.

“This is F1,” he said. “It is competitive and when the regulations stay more or less the same, it is always going to get tighter. There are three big teams now which we expected to be close.

“What we need to do is keep looking into the fine details, and learning even little bits, even one hundredth of a second at a time. If we can find those regularly, from all the areas – especially from our weaknesses – that is going to bring us far.”

Bottas believes that if Mercedes needs to progress, the team will have to work together rather than pinning hopes on individuals to find the answer.

“If I have to say one thing that we need to do to get to the top, it is teamwork,” he said. “Keeping working as a team, as the team has always done, because together you can do so much more than alone.”