Bottas demands improvement after Stake F1 'wake-up call'

Valtteri Bottas has conceded Stake F1's disappointing race pace and pit-stop dramas are a "wake-up call"..

The former Mercedes driver suffered the second longest pit-stop of his F1 career during the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix - a 52.4-second pit-stop caused by a wheel nut issue.

Teammate Zhou Guanyu appeared to suffer the same issue at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, taking him out of the fight for points.

"I don't know yet, I need to get some explanation after but it's clear we need to fix it," Zhou told select media including RacingNews365.

Bottas and Zhou ultimately finished in a disappointing P17 and P18, with the Hinwil-based team still being without a point after the opening two races, due to their pit-stop issues and concerning race pace.

"I think it needs to be a wake-up call," added Bottas.

"Obviously, it's only race two out of 24 and we have things coming in the pipeline, but we definitely need to improve not just the pace but also operation, now we've had both drivers having big issues on pit-stop in two races."

'Two weeks' to solve problem

Points-scoring opportunities will be coming at a premium this season with the F1 midfield as close as ever.

The pecking order will likely yo-yo in the same way as last year, where the in-season development race dictated the leaderboard at various stages of the campaign.

"I think we've got some bits coming for Australia and at least now we have two weeks to try and solve the pitstop issue we have," explained Bottas.

"I think it was the same issue with Zhou with a cross threading, so that's something we need to fix because even if we make the car faster, if we have long pitstops, then it's not ideal."