Mercedes reveals that Bottas' reaction speed was slower than that of Verstappen
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- GPblog.com
Mercedes has revealed that the Valtteri Bottas his poor start was simply due to a relatively slow reaction speed. According to James Vowles, responsible for the world champion's main strategy, Max Verstappen, Lance Stroll and Lewis Hamilton were simply quicker off the grid and Bottas had to chase.
"Bottas' reaction speed was slightly slower than that of Verstappen, Stroll and Hamilton. That's why he places on those first few meters", says Vowles on the YouTube account of Mercedes. In addition, Bottas' competitors were able to make better use of a slipstream at the start. "Stroll and Verstappen made excellent use of it."
As a result, Bottas dropped back to fourth place. After a few laps the Finnish driver managed to pass the Racing Point of Stroll and then the attack on Verstappen could be opened. The Mercedes team had two options during the Spanish Grand Prix.
"The first is to go longer, force Verstappen into an early stop, make sure you cover him and then go much longer than him, and do an overcut and overtake on track," said Vowles.
The options that Mercedes had
The second possibility that presented itself for the German race stable is that of the undercut. "The one that is most known about, but to do that you need to be very, very close to the car in front and on the first stint, we simply weren’t there. We were dropping off the tyre curves and we weren’t able to get close enough to Verstappen."
During the second stint on the Barcelona circuit there was again a small chance of an undercut for Bottas. "There was an opportunity for an undercut, a very small one. It appeared for a lap and that was it, and it was very marginal to take a medium and then undercut," said the top man.