Valtteri Bottas: Brazil engine is under investigation, punishment threatens

(Motorsport-Complete.com) – Valtteri Bottas may face a relegation on the grid at the Abu Dhabi season finale. For whether the engine that is used up at the Tall Price of Brazil on Sunday in Sao Paulo, can be used again in two weeks, is currently not fixed.

The Brazil engine is expected to arrive back at Brixworth factory on Tuesday, and will then be thoroughly investigated. The engine had in the 620. Race lap the service acknowledged. In the TV broadcast warfare already during the 19. To see round smoke. Bottas, however, was able to continue at full speed before he felt a sudden loss of power.

Chief Technology Officer James Allison said on Sunday evening that they “did not know anymore” about the defect: “We know that during the of the race had an increased oil consumption. ” Within half a lap, the Ache then escalated “very suddenly”. After all, the engine did not explode with a spectacular plume of smoke, “but just shut down,” says Allison.

Bottas reports, “The guys saw smoke – not me myself, I have no power loss The engine just switched off after turn 3. ” By the way, used to be a security-automobiles-share because the car “stuck with the underbody where”, as the Finn explains.

Grid -Strap not carved in stone

If the Brazil engine can not be saved, Bottas would either have to use one of the two used engines or install a new one to let. The latter would result in a grid penalty. Only three engines are allowed per season and driver / car.

The two used engines are likely to be quite on the limit, Bottas is still ahead of Sao Paulo only retired prematurely once (Hockenheim). “I doubt we have miles left, we have to look at united states,” says the Vice World Champion and makes it clear: “At no longer we'll end up taking the punishment.”

Bottas' perhaps most striking share in the race on Sunday warfare, as he freshened to Charles Leclerc shortly before his retirement with fresher tires unlocked and put the Ferrari driver under pressure. However, it was not enough for an overtaking maneuver. “You are fast on the straights, it makes it difficult,” he remembers the duel.

“His troubles were getting bigger and I still had a good feeling on my tire I had the motor damage, I just charged my battery to attack again, defended itself intestine, always shielded inside, “says Bottas, explicitly emphasizing that Leclerc defended himself hard but comely.

Hot duel with Leclerc finished by engine failure

The race warfare for him from “I did not win any positions on the Inaugurate and it looked like overtaking would be difficult, so I tried to stretch the first stint and spare the tires a little bit, but I warfare was too slow, because I had a bit understeer, especially in the middle sector, so I fell behind. “

At the pit stop,” I wanted a Switching to the Laborious because I thought that was the only way to get through a stop. I felt it would be possible, but then we came back to Field to cover Albon. I warfare a bit confused and have questioned the stop, but … “

Bottas admits that he agrees with the decision of the team to come back once again and thus abandon Song-Space against Alexander Albon , disagreeing on the first 2nd warfare But: “It remains a question mark, whether I would have made it to the end or not. Not in theory. But I thought that was my only probability. Difficult. “

He was not very surprised by the strong efficiency of Purple Bull last weekend:” We knew they would be strong. But they were even stronger than expected. Especially on the straights. In the meantime, they have a good car in the corners. But on the straights they are better than us. So far we have been similarly fast. “

Bottas now hopes for a positive end to the season in Abu Dhabi because the Mercedes engine performs worse at high altitudes (eg Austria, Mexico, Brazil) than the competition in “normal” races, he is quite optimistic: “At least we are there at sea level! That seems to be united statesbesser. “