TAG wrote: ↑14 Mar 2018, 17:51
Vasconia wrote: ↑14 Mar 2018, 17:39
I think he has realized that he won´t beat Lewis unless he starts to make mistakes in many races. Bottas is a fine driver but he is not as fast and constant as Nico was.
he's also not dirty, stating he wouldn't resort to those tactics as his predecessor did.
Not to drag this discussion in wrong direction, but what people conveniently forget before concluding that Nico was good and Bottas is comparably bad, is that, with the kind of qualifying margin that Mercedes had on the next best team (from 2014-16), even when Nico qualified half a second behind Lewis, he only started second as the rest of the field was more than 6 to 8 tenths behind the pole time. With that, except for Nico, there was no one there to take advantage when Lewis had problems at the start. Bottas didn't get that kind of advantage with a difficult car last year and Ferrari was as close as 2 or 3 tenths behind on pole time.
If this year's car is as dominant as W05, W06 or W07, then I have no doubt that, Bottas will be in a similar situation to that of Nico and constantly qualify second and at times pole too. He would also be there to take advantage if Lewis has problems at the start and end up being ahead by turn 1, after which, Mercedes' rules of engagement kicks in and ensures that Bottas will get some wins. As beneficial as Nico was.
If anything, we probably wouldn't witness a Monaco 2014 qualifying, an Austria 2016, a Silverstone 2016 and a Spain 2016. That would be sad.