Bottas rues ‘big mistake’ at pitstop after Monaco F1 retirement
Valtteri Bottas was left ruing a “big mistake” by his Mercedes Formula 1 team after being forced to retire from Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix while running second.
Bottas had hoped to take the fight to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Monaco after seeing polesitter Charles Leclerc fail to start, promoting the Mercedes driver to second for lights out.
Bottas maintained the position after Verstappen defended well at Turn 1, opening up a five-second gap over the Finn through the opening stint.
But when Mercedes brought Bottas into the pits at the end of lap 30 to fit the hard compound tyre, an issue meant the team was unable to get the front-right tyre off his car.
Despite numerous attempts by the Mercedes pit crew, the problem ultimately forced to team to tell Bottas to switch his car off and retire from the race.
Mercedes confirmed that “the wheel nut machined onto the axle and couldn’t be removed” at the pit stop.
“I don't know what happened in the pitstop to be honest, I don't know yet if it was human error or a technical issue,” Bottas said in the TV pen following his retirement.
“But in any case, we need to learn from it. It's a big mistake by us and it should not happen.”
Bottas felt he was in the position to be able to fight Verstappen for the race victory, only for the retirement to cost Mercedes the lead of the constructors’ championship.
“I think otherwise we could have fought for the win,” Bottas said.
“Red Bull and Max, they were really quick, so it would have been difficult, but at least we could have gotten a second place today with good points but we lost them.
“Max was quick and I think they managed to get the soft tyre to last a bit longer in the first stint. and once you get onto the hard tyre there's not much happening.
“I don't know. We'll never know if we could have challenged or not.”
It marked Bottas’ second retirement in the opening five races of the season, and saw him slip to fourth in the drivers’ championship behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Share Or Save This Story
1998 Belgian GP: When the Schumachers went to war
The race that transformed perceptions of Red Bull
Hamilton in the process of selecting Brad Pitt’s co-star for F1 movie
Valtteri Bottas' unusual Miami F1 penalty explained
Valtteri Bottas: Cadillac felt “like a different car” in F1 Miami GP qualifying
Bottas' mental health column is brutal, but also shows how F1 is changing
'Antonelli and Sinner, Sinner and Antonelli' - Italy should handle its latest sporting hero with care
F1 power unit changes required but difficult before 2028, says McLaren
The unique F1 record that Kimi Antonelli broke with his Miami GP win
Judge sets trial date in Joe Gibbs Racing, Chris Gabehart, Spire lawsuit
Travis Pastrana to run NASCAR Truck race at Charlotte with Ram
Graham Rahal “not a fan” of new rule allowing push-to-pass on restarts
NASCAR will use tire packs to enforce new track limits at Watkins Glen
'Antonelli and Sinner, Sinner and Antonelli' - Italy should handle its latest sporting hero with care
The intrigue sparked by Red Bull's Miami sidepod design
Where will ‘yo-yo’ F1 racing return?
Exclusive: The story behind Red Bull and Max Verstappen's F1 turnaround in Miami
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments