Wolff and Bottas collaborated from 2008 until last season.
Toto Wolff has worked closely together Valtteri Bottas since 2008. For this season, the men’s paths were different when the Mercedes race director replaced his Finnish driver with a British promise. George Russellin. However, the friendship did not wane as Bottas moved to rival camp on Ferrari’s junior team for Alfa Romeo.
The first race weekend of the season in Bahrain would probably only harden this mutual friendship even further.
In a time trial, Bottas lifted Alfa Romeo to the top of the middle group when he whipped the C41 into the six-box. From Wolff’s British duo Lewis Hamilton Russell dropped to fifth, but Russell, who lost 0.656 seconds to Finnish veteran, dropped to ninth.
In the race, Bottas slumped far behind both Britons due to the cluttered start of his clutch and eventually drove to the finish line in just under six seconds in the sixth place left for Russell.
At a Mercedes press conference, Wolff revealed that Bottas had thrown them a challenge on race morning on Whatsapp.
“Valtteri sent me a Whatsapp greeting that he was really looking forward to competing against us. And that’s exactly what he did in the race. ”
“Honestly, I’m happy for him. I’m glad Valtteri just moved to Alfa Romeo, where he became the lead driver, bringing his great personality to the team and energizing everyone. At the same time, I feel joy too Finn Rausingin and Frederic Vasseurin on behalf of when they have succeeded in a tough contract to improve a lot of their team’s positions. It looks like Alfa Romeo has a very strong package right now. ”
“It felt pretty cool to be able to take a measure of Mercedes,” Bottas admitted as the media inquired about what he was going to set off for Wolff.
Better Sauber has last opened his season in 2015, when Felipe Nasr was fifth in Australia and Marcus Ericsson eighth. Kimi Räikkönen’s first weekend at Alfa Romeo 2019 brought the ninth starting box and eighth place in the race.
A new weekend awaits as soon as Saudi Arabia hosts its second GP race in less than four months. In December, Bottas was second in the time trial and third in the race. However, Saudi Arabia is a more difficult challenge for Alfa Romeo than Bahrain in advance as the fast corners lurk in the weakness of the C41. There are far more bends in Saudi Arabia than in Bahrain.
The first track sector is good for Alfa Romeo in advance, but the difficulties will then come with the latter two sections.
However, Bottas is adept between the walls, does not make mistakes and can very well get to the positions in time trial, where points are taken again in the race.
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