Breaking news

Formula 1 Abu Dhabi GP

Bottas faced with threat of grid drop for Abu Dhabi

The Mercedes Formula 1 team doesn’t yet know if Valtteri Bottas will need to take a grid penalty in Abu Dhabi after his retirement from the Brazilian GP with an engine issue.

Adam Cooper

Edited: Nov 19, 2019, 3:24 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG W10

The engine that he used in Interlagos will be returned to the HPP facility in Brixworth on Tuesday evening, and will stripped and analysed. A final decision on the plan for Abu Dhabi will be made early next week.

Bottas had to park up on lap 53 in Brazil after smoke was seen coming from the rear of the car over the previous lap.

“I think there was a bit of smoke,” he said. “I didn’t actually see the smoke myself, but they reported to me, but I couldn't feel any loss of power, just the engine switched off after Turn 3.”

Asked if he has any mileage left on his earlier engines should the Brazil unit be unusable, Bottas said: “To be confirmed. I doubt there's any miles left, but we’ll see.”

After the race Mercedes technical director James Allison said it was too early to know if the engine was salvageable.

“We don't know any more about it,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com. “We know that we had elevated oil consumption during the race that ran away very sharply - very sharply - about half a lap before we saw it expire. The engine stopped itself rather than expired in a heap.”

Both of Bottas' previous engines for the season have completed their planned schedule in terms of races – in effect they do seven race weekends each. Bottas has completed a lot of miles this year, and his only retirement before Brazil was due to his crash in Germany.

A Mercedes spokesman said of the used engines: “It doesn’t necessarily mean that they couldn’t do another [event], but that wouldn’t necessarily be preferred.”

Read Also:

Bottas had endured a difficult race in Brazil. Having planned on a one-stop strategy – and taken hard tyres in order to facilitate that – he was called in for a second time later in the race. He admitted that he was “a bit confused” at the change of strategy,

“At the start I didn't gain any positions,” he explained. “And it seemed like overtaking would be difficult, and to go long in the first stint I tried to save the tyres a bit. But still I think I was lacking a bit of pace in the first stint due to quite a bit of understeer, especially middle sector, and so I was dropping back behind further away than than ideal.

“So then I wanted to go on the hard tyre because I thought that's going to be maybe the only chance to go with a one-stop. I felt still that it could be possible, but we stopped to cover [Alex] Albon, I think.

“And from my side I was a bit confused when I questioned the stop. It's still a question mark if I could have made it to the end or not, in theory not. But I thought that would be the only chance really, so a bit tricky.”

Bottas spent part of the race behind Charles Leclerc, but was unable to find a way past the Ferrari. “They're quick on the straight so makes it tricky, but I think he was starting to struggle more and more. I still felt good with the tyre so it actually when I just had the engine failure, I was charging my battery again. It was pretty flat and there was not much left to do anything.

“So plan was to charge it for a bit, get it full and then attack again. It's not easy to get them for sure with their straightline speed, and he was defending well, he was always covering the inside.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Ferrari: Timing of Vettel/Leclerc Brazil clash "lucky"

Next article Why Sainz escaped penalty for "muscle memory" DRS use

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Franco Colapinto, George Russell to sit out FP1 at F1 Mexico GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

7 min

Franco Colapinto, George Russell to sit out FP1 at F1 Mexico GP

Rally US reveals further details ahead of WRC 2027 return

WRC

WRC WRC 8 min

Rally US reveals further details ahead of WRC 2027 return

The mistakes that cost Lewis Hamilton a podium at F1’s US GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

56 min

The mistakes that cost Lewis Hamilton a podium at F1’s US GP

HMD Motorsports confirms Leonardo Escorpioni to 2027 Indy NXT roster

Indy NXT

IndL Indy NXT 1 h

HMD Motorsports confirms Leonardo Escorpioni to 2027 Indy NXT roster

Feature

Discover prime content

The one aspect of the 2026 US GP that should be a blueprint for F1 2027

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

The one aspect of the 2026 US GP that should be a blueprint for F1 2027

A strategic masterclass: How Kimi Antonelli put himself on the cusp of F1 title at the US GP

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

A strategic masterclass: How Kimi Antonelli put himself on the cusp of F1 title at the US GP

How Verstappen and Antonelli were both “surprised” in United States GP qualifying

Formula 1

United States GP

By Stuart Codling

How Verstappen and Antonelli were both “surprised” in United States GP qualifying

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

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.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts