Autosportfoto

F1 Brazilian GP: Bottas: Williams must go for Force India in final race

Valtteri Bottas says Williams must go all-out and commit itself to catching Force India after falling 28 points behind in the battle for fourth in the F1 world constructors' championship.

An ill-timed switch to intermediate tyres which was hit by safety car and red flag periods saw both Bottas and Felipe Massa continually slip down the running order in Brazil.

While Massa's final home race was brought to a tearful end by a crash around the final corner, Bottas could only recover to finish 11th.

Coupled with Force India's double points finish, with Sergio Perez fourth and Nico Hulkenberg seventh, the Grove-based squad has fallen 28 points back with only the 2016 season final in Abu Dhabi remaining.

Knowing Williams has nothing to lose at the final race of the season, Bottas is calling on his team to throw everything into the last race which he feels will suit his car in the slim hope of leapfrogging Force India.

"We must just go for it! It's the last race, we have nothing to lose," Bottas said. "We obviously will have nothing new in the car, normally it should be a better track for us and, at least, it should also be dry."

Bottas conceded Force India had both the pace and the luck at Interlagos but was given a timely boost having felt Williams demonstrated it had cured its wet racing woes having battled back through the field over the final stretch of the Brazilian GP.

"It is disappointing, they [Force India] had a very good race, they had a good strategy and you also need a bit of luck in these conditions, this kind of say," he said. "It wasn't our day and it was also a shame for Felipe that his last home race finished like this, but I'm sure he still got a pretty warm cheer from the fans.

"The pace in wet was actually more or less like our pace in the dry, so that was okay, after all the struggles we had in wet conditions in the past."

In the F1 drivers' championship, Bottas has also lost vital ground to Perez in the battle for 'the best of the rest' seventh place behind the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull drivers. Bottas now needs to overcome a 12-point deficit, which on countback effectively means the Finn must finish third or higher and Perez not score in Abu Dhabi.

Zdroj: crash.net