Bottas: 'This mistake won't happen again'

Valtteri Bottas had a frustrating weekend at the Belgian GP as he had to settle for 9th place at Spa-Francorchamps following a surprising error from his team. The Finn found himself on the track with two types of tires, which is against the regulations. The pilot Williams thus received a drive-through.

“We’re going to have to understand what happened because we need to sort out the procedures to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We will learn from this and I am sure that this error will not happen again », commented Valtteri Bottas on the Williams F1 Racing website. “I could have finished in 5th place without this penalty because I was at the front. But our pace was not yet good enough to get a podium, which was our goal. »

If Valtteri Bottas' near future is now linked to Williams after his compatriot Kimi Räikkönen extended contract with Ferrari for 2016, the Finn admits that the 2015 season for the Grove team is a bit disappointing. “I think Williams is a superb team and I am confident they can return to the top positions in 2016.”, he said. “There’s no reason why Williams can’t fight with Ferrari et Red Bull. I have to admit that we expected more from the car this year, particularly in the first part of the season if we compare it to 2014, where we had a few more podiums than this year. »

Discover the analysis of the Belgian GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2026 of AUTOhebdo, available now digitally available on all platforms and on newsstands.