F1 News
Bottas had deja vu to last year: 'Oh my god, not again!'
- GPblog.com
While the battle for second place in the drivers' championship received most of the attention in Abu Dhabi, the final ranking in the constructors' championship was being fought for in the midfield. A place higher or lower in the standings had hefty, financial implications. One of the winners of the million-dollar game was Alfa Romeo.
Sauber's team - competing under the Alfa Romeo sponsor name - finished sixth in the final standings, with 55 points. That was as many as Aston Martin, but Valtteri Bottas' fifth place in Imola (the best result of either of these teams) meant Alfa Romeo finished higher in the standings. As a result, this team captured $12 million more in prize money than Aston Martin did.
Everything could have changed
Things could easily have been different. On the last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel tried to pass Daniel Ricciardo for ninth place. Had that succeeded, Aston Martin would thus have got that extra 12 million. "I had a vision to last year, when everything changed," Bottas looked back with GPblog and other media. He was referring to the ending of the title fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, the latter then his teammate at Mercedes.
"The team was keeping me updated (during the race) and I was: 'Oh my God, not again!' Now the feeling was all goed," the Finn laughed. He had a volatile season. With Alfa Romeo he started the year extremely strong, but in the second half of the season, things got worse and worse. Moreover, the car had many reliability problems. "Overall, I am pleased. But I know as a team, there is a lot of work to do. We still need to be more consistent, with better results."
Editor-in-chief Tim Kraaij reported from Abu Dhabi for this article