Valtteri Bottas fumes at Mercedes in French GP - 'Why the f*** does no-one listen to me?'
Valtteri Bottas was left fuming over Mercedes’ team radio during the French Grand Prix, after surrendering second place to Max Verstappen in the final few laps at Paul Ricard. Red Bull opted for a two-stop strategy for Verstappen over their main title rivals, which ultimately paid off with the Dutchman securing victory in France over Lewis Hamilton.
After the move, Bottas was heard shouting to his race engineer, Riccardo Musconi: “Why the f*** does nobody listen to me when I say it’s going to be a two-stopper? F***ing hell.”
His team-mate Hamilton was leading the race at the time, with the Finn behind him running in second, struggling on the hard tyre for the final few laps of the race.
Verstappen and Red Bull had switched up strategies, and pitted onto the medium compound of tyre in the latter part of the race to take the fight to Mercedes, whilst also trying to avoid their rivals performing the undercut.
And it worked, as the championship leader swept past the Finn on fresher tyres, before his team-mate Perez did the same thing few laps later, despite also being on the older hard tyre.
“My tyres are f***ing finished,” said Bottas. “Copy, we understand,” came the reply from Musconi.
