Valtteri Bottas admits that Alfa Romeo took a "risk" with his strategy during the Spanish Grand Prix, meaning that he finished in sixth after earlier running as high as P3. The Finn had another strong weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, having qualified in seventh on the grid after consistently taking the 'best of the rest' position behind the Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes cars. This good run of form continued during the start of Sunday's race, and at one stage Bottas was up to third following issues for cars ahead, which included Charles Leclerc's sudden retirement from the lead. However, Bottas' two-stop strategy meant that he had to stretch out a set of Medium tyres for a long second stint, and this enabled Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton to overtake him, pushing the former Mercedes driver down to P6.
Bottas reflects on "risk" of strategy
Bottas admits that this plan was a gamble, but he believes that it was worth trying. "When you are in those positions and things are going smoothly, and you see things happening to other cars, you are thinking, 'Okay, it could be my day,'" Bottas told media, including RacingNews365.com . "But I think, strategy-wise, we took a bit of a risk today. We left the last stint to be very long, but in the end it was too long. The tyres died towards the end. "We tried. We had the chance to choose, 'Are we going to be the best of the rest, or are we going to try something more?' "So we tried something different and it didn't work out, but the risk was pretty minimal. There was not that much threat from behind."
Would a podium have been possible for Bottas?
Throught his F1 career so far, Bottas has stood on the podium on 67 occasions while driving for the Williams and Mercedes teams. He is yet to do so with Alfa Romeo but, when asked if this might have been a possibility in Barcelona had he been on the optimal strategy, the Finn admits that he has doubts. "I think [there was] just not quite enough pace," he explained. "But maybe with the issues Lewis had towards the end, we would have [been] a bit shorter on the last stint. [It] could have been maybe possible but, anyway, it is still good points."
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