Toto Wolff says that Valtteri Bottas was right to "speak his mind" in Sunday's French Grand Prix rather than "internalise" his feelings after he felt defeated by Mercedes' race strategy.
Bottas believed he had lost out on a podium finish and a potential win at Paul Ricard because of his team's decision to stick with a one-stop strategy.
After being passed by future race winner Max Verstappen with 10 laps to go and realizing that his race was compromised, the Finn voiced his frustration over the team's radio.
"Why the f*ck does no one listen to me when I say it's going to be a two-stopper?!" F***ing hell," he shouted, losing his cool.
It was a reaction uncharacteristic of the Finn's typical calm and composed demeanor, one that surprised many although not Bottas himself who said after the race that he was simply "making very clear what I was thinking".
©Mercedes
Queried on his driver's outburst, Wolff actually welcomed Bottas' fiery feelings, even if the Austrian stood by the team's decision to enforce a one-stop strategy.
"I loved it, that he speaks his mind now, and doesn’t internalise," Wolff said. "We still believe the one-stop was the better strategy
"But when fighting so strong after the stop, we just stretched the tyre, stressed the tyres too much to make it all the way to the end."
While Bottas was unhappy with his P4 result, Wolff reckoned the Finn had "delivered a good race".
"He was right up there with Lewis and Max for large parts of the race," Wolff said.
"I think the development goes in the right direction, to be honest. Yes, there is still a part, or a gap in tyre management [to Hamilton]. But we’ll look at it in detail in the next few days.
"But I see a real progression with how Valtteri tackles the races, and qualifying, we never doubted."
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