Bottas: Every mistake will cost more in shorter F1 season
Valtteri Bottas says minimising mistakes will be key for drivers vying to win the Formula 1 world championship during a shorter-than-usual 2020 season.
F1 has confirmed an unprecedented run of eight European-based races will take place in the space of just 10 weeks to form the start of the heavily-delayed 2020 campaign, which begins with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5.
Valtteri Bottas says minimising mistakes will be key for drivers vying to win the Formula 1 world championship during a shorter-than-usual 2020 season.
F1 has confirmed an unprecedented run of eight European-based races will take place in the space of just 10 weeks to form the start of the heavily-delayed 2020 campaign, which begins with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5.
The rest of the revised calendar is currently being formalised amid uncertainty over how many rounds will make up the final schedule, with F1 striving for between 15 and 18 races.
Speaking in an Instagram live interview with F1, Bottas explained that drivers will need to be on the top of their game more than ever before.
“Minimising every mistake and maximising every single race weekend is going to be the key, because every mistake is going to cost more than in a normal championship with more than 20 races,” Bottas said.
“So just consistency and being on it, that’s going to be the key and we need to keep on, not to be overdoing things, and trusting your own skills and the team around you. I’m sure we can do that.
“It’s an interesting season ahead. There’s a bit of an unknown after the first eight races, how the calendar is going to be so we just need to take that week by week, month by month and we’ll see.”
Bottas’ future has been the subject of much speculation with the Finn out of contract at the end of the season.
He recently claimed Mercedes has assured him that it is not considering a move for Sebastian Vettel for 2021, while the German manufacturer also has the impressive George Russell on its books.
But Bottas believes he will have “no worries” about a new deal if he can hit the level of performance he is targeting this year.
“I have that one single target in my mind for the season and that’s it, take all the other things away," he explained.
"If I can follow all those targets, performance targets, and if our team can perform well, there’s going to be no worries about any contract."
