‘At least we could fight’ – Bottas taking positives from Kick Sauber’s step forward in Mexico

Valtteri Bottas was left feeling positive about Kick Sauber’s progress at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the Finn pleased to have been able to fight despite the team again missing out on scoring points.

After starting from P15 on the hard tyre, Bottas ran a longer first stint than anybody else in the field. While this did not pay off in terms of being able to climb into the top 10, the 35-year-old got involved in a few battles en route to 14th place and felt that this was a sign of progression from last time out in Austin.

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“I think we maximised today,” said Bottas. “I think I wouldn’t really do anything different. We tried to extend the first stint in hope for something, but no luck.

“At least we could fight a little bit today, which really hasn’t been the case in the previous event, so that’s a bit more positive. I hope it’s not only this track and hope we’re [going] in the right way.”

Pushed on whether there is more to extract from the upgraded package in order to move closer to their competitors, Bottas added: “The gaps are small. We see the gaps are a bit bigger in the race pace, which is something we need to focus on.

“In qualifying it’s actually extremely close, and we still should have some new bits before the end of the year but when exactly is still TBC.”

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On the other side of the garage, Zhou Guanyu faced a difficult afternoon after experiencing a brake problem before eventually crossing the line in P15. Despite this, the Chinese driver spoke positively about his pace during the earlier stages of the event.

“I had quite a lot of issues on the brakes, so I needed to lift over a lap, like two seconds per lap after the first five/six laps,” he explained. “Otherwise the pace was good.

“We were catching the pack together, we were together with [Oscar Piastri in the] McLaren and people around us, but when the brake issue came the race kind of just went away.”

Asked how frustrating this had been given the signs of progress displayed by the C44 during the weekend, Zhou reflected: “Yeah, I think in general we had a similar pace to the others, [though] still on the back foot.

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“[But we had] little issues throughout the weekend. Like in the race we had a lot of management, it was quite extreme compared to what we expected but otherwise we would have had some trouble, so we had to do it and that just compromised the race.”

Kick Sauber now have four races remaining to break their points duck, the squad being the only outfit on the grid yet to score in 2024.