Bottas prefers tracks that "penalise mistakes" despite 25G crash

The Finn crashed heavily against the barriers after losing control of his Mercedes at Turn 6, the car snapping right and sending Bottas head-on into the wall.

Although the accident meant Bottas damaged his car heavily and was unable to return to the track, the Mercedes driver admitted he prefers tracks like the Red Bull Ring, where going off-limits punishes errors.

Bottas' comments come a week after track limits were put in the spotlight again during the French GP weekend at Paul Ricard, a circuit known for its huge asphalt run-offs.

"It makes a difference. Even though I crashed I do prefer to be penalised for the mistakes. It makes it more exciting," said Bottas of his accident.

"I think that is how it should be and definitely mistakes here cost a lot with aggressive kerbs and minimal runs-off and everything."

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Teammate Lewis Hamilton also welcomed a return to a circuit where track limits are clearly defined and where drivers pay for their mistakes.

"I'm not a big fan of tracks like Paul Ricard, where you do have those run-off areas," Hamilton said.

"I remember back in the day, when I was driving at Spa, going through Pouhon and the outside was gravel in that, it was so scary. The smallest mistake and you can really damage the car.

"So, going back to a track like this where you do have gravel, the penalty's there and you're definitely more nervous about it, you're braking into Turn 4, you know if you go too deep you're in the gravel, if you go too heavy and too quick into 6 you know you're in the gravel, same in 7.

"But also they've done it with quite serious kerbs on the exits of 9 and 10. That's a positive. You shouldn't be able to run wide and come back on, easy peasy, you know?"

Bottas, who managed to finish second in the afternoon session despite the crash, said he was okay and without any pain.

The Finn lost some track time in the morning as well as a result of needing to revert to the previous-spec engine following an oil leak.

Despite that, Bottas said he was confident he had a good set-up direction for his car.

"That compromised first practice a little bit but still found a clear direction on the car set-up and where to go, and made pretty big changes for FP2 and felt a lot better until I had the shunt," he said.

"But before that it was feeling quite nice. So overall a good feeling but other teams are quick as well."

The damaged car of Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG W10

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images