‘I wouldn’t do anything different’ – Bottas stands by strategy gamble at Monza as he takes positives from Kick Sauber’s weekend

Valtteri Bottas has no regrets about gambling on an alternative strategy at the Italian Grand Prix, despite the move not paying off in terms of points as Kick Sauber’s search for their first top-10 finish of the season continues.

With Bottas and team mate Zhou Guanyu ending Saturday’s qualifying session in 19th and 20th respectively, the squad opted to run their drivers on different starting tyres, with Bottas being one of just six drivers to start on the hard compound.

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From there the Finn ran the longest opening stint of the race but ultimately crossed the line in P16. Asked later on if he had thought that the strategy might pay off at some point, Bottas reflected: “I was hoping it would work out!

“And yeah, before stopping I was really hoping for either a Safety Car or something, because the pace is still so that we still need luck to get into the points, unfortunately. But I think it was good to try. I wouldn’t do anything different if I did the race again, so in that side it was clear.”

The event proved to be another tough one for Kick Sauber – the only outfit yet to get off the mark in 2024 – but Bottas believes that there were still some positive factors to take away from Monza.

“The weekend started really well,” he explained. “I think we just had a great pace in the first two practice sessions, but we couldn’t keep that momentum.

READ MORE: Bottas now has ‘clear direction’ over F1 future with driver market ‘more straightforward’ after Sainz’s Williams deal

“We couldn’t make enough improvements through the weekend, but at least [it has been] better than last weekend, so some positives. But still a big mountain of work to do, so we’ll keep working.”

It was also a challenging race for Zhou. While he started on the medium tyre, the Chinese driver ran a one-stop strategy like his team mate but struggled to make much ground, ending the day in P18.

“The pace we had today I think is about where we are at the moment,” Zhou conceded. “[We] tried a different tyre to start compared to my team mate, hoping for something maybe happening with the Safety Car, but in a smooth race I think it’s really difficult to pick up further ground [from] where we were.

“But at least we were together with the pace with the guys around us – the Haas, I think the pace is quite similar, and also [with the] Alpines we [were] able to have matching pace at some stages of the race, but clearly not enough.”

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With just two seats left on the 2025 grid – one of those being at Kick Sauber – Zhou admitted that it has been difficult to show what he is capable of given the team’s recent difficulties.

“Yeah, it’s been a struggle especially from my side this year, but I think everybody understands how much we’ve been struggling together with the package,” the 25-year-old said.

“Of course at the moment I’m aware it’s very important [that] I’m hoping for some points, but this year we’ve been searching for that. At the moment it feels still a bit far from that.”

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