As Valtteri Bottas tries to secure a future in Formula One, he did a solid job last weekend. At the Red Bull Ring in Austria, a place where Bottas has won and got poles in the past, as well as his first podium, the Finn finished P16, 26s ahead of teammate Zhou Guanyu. Sauber remains as the only team without a point this season.
Bottas was stuck in blue flags in the second and third stints of the race. Due to the tyre offset, there was even moments where midfield teams got stuck behind the race leaders due to the degradation.
“Yeah, it’s tricky. You know, it’s obviously a short track. And yeah, it just sometimes depends on luck, where you get the blue flags and stuff.
“But yeah, the tyre delta is huge here, with pretty high deg with these temperatures.
“It was kind of expected, but I was just trying to get the DRS from the quick cars going past.”
As the track had some new gravel traps, Bottas said that he liked the extra deterrent, although he kept it clean last year already.
“Not really. I mean, I didn’t have the issue last year to stay on track. I think it’s nice to have more hard limits, let’s say, so I think they work well.”
To finish, Bottas said that there might be progress on his future in F1, but his fate lies with Carlos Sainz, who has all the cards on the table with offers from Audi, Alpine and Williams. Should the Williams seat remain available, the 34-year-old could end up back at Grove.
“Maybe, maybe not. I need to speak with my management team. But I’m sure the talks have been going, but if there’s actually been progress, I don’t know.
“Maybe you can ask some other drivers or driver.”
Pushed on who to ask, Bottas said: “I think you know [Carlos Sainz].”
