Williams have promised to investigate why Valtteri Bottas was sent onto the track with an illegal tyre combination during the Belgian Grand Prix.
Bottas was fitted with three soft tyres and one medium at his first pit stop on lap nine. This violated article 25.2 (c) of the Sporting Regulations which states “a set of tyres will be deemed to comprise two front and two rear tyres all of which must be of the same specification”.
Williams’ head of performance engineering Rob Smedley said: “As a team we have made a mistake, and on behalf of the team I am very sorry that we cost him what could have been a podium position.”
“There will be an investigation into the processes in place to understand what happened fully, and to put in place a procedure to stop this happening again.”
Smedley said the team’s lack of pace on the soft tyres at the start of the race compromised their result.
“The rest of our race was dictated by the lack of pace in the first stint and from then on we had to fight our way back,” he said.
“The big difference at this race was that there were five teams all with very similar race pace. Unfortunately though, because so many cars were close in performance, the result was dictated primarily by what happened in the first stint when we were struggling.”
“After that we had the pace on the [medium] tyre and as a result still managed to finish with both cars in the points.”
2015 Belgian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Soft (13) | Medium (17) | Soft (13) | |
| Nico Rosberg | Soft (12) | Medium (19) | Soft (12) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Soft (9) | Soft (12) | Medium (22) | |
| Daniil Kvyat | Soft (9) | Medium (18) | Soft (16) | |
| Sergio Perez | Soft (8) | Soft (12) | Medium (23) | |
| Felipe Massa | Soft (9) | Medium (12) | Medium (22) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (11) | Soft (10) | Medium (22) | |
| Max Verstappen | Soft (9) | Soft (12) | Medium (11) | Soft (11) |
| Valtteri Bottas | Soft (8) | Soft (13)* | Medium (22) | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Soft (9) | Medium (19) | Soft (15) | |
| Felipe Nasr | Medium (10) | Soft (17) | Soft (16) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Soft (14) | Medium (28) | ||
| Fernando Alonso | Medium (8) | Soft (12) | Soft (12) | Soft (10) |
| Jenson Button | Medium (11) | Soft (9) | Soft (15) | Soft (7) |
| Roberto Merhi | Soft (15) | Soft (14) | Medium (13) | |
| Will Stevens | Soft (16) | Soft (14) | Medium (12) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Soft (5) | Medium (18) | Soft (9) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Soft (7) | Medium (12) | ||
| Pastor Maldonado | Soft (1) | |||
| Nico Hulkenberg |
*Bottas was fitted with three soft tyres and one medium at this stop.
2015 Belgian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.403 | 13 | |
| 2 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 22.563 | 0.160 | 27 |
| 3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.578 | 0.175 | 11 |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.637 | 0.234 | 7 |
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.681 | 0.278 | 14 |
| 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.765 | 0.362 | 31 |
| 7 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 22.796 | 0.393 | 9 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.918 | 0.515 | 20 |
| 9 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 22.942 | 0.539 | 32 |
| 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.955 | 0.552 | 30 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 22.973 | 0.570 | 8 |
| 12 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.997 | 0.594 | 12 |
| 13 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 23.041 | 0.638 | 21 |
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 23.143 | 0.740 | 21 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 23.191 | 0.788 | 32 |
| 16 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 23.282 | 0.879 | 9 |
| 17 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 23.282 | 0.879 | 29 |
| 18 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 23.288 | 0.885 | 27 |
| 19 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 23.319 | 0.916 | 8 |
| 20 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 23.348 | 0.945 | 23 |
| 21 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 23.439 | 1.036 | 10 |
| 22 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 23.489 | 1.086 | 21 |
| 23 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 23.493 | 1.090 | 21 |
| 24 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 23.562 | 1.159 | 8 |
| 25 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 23.643 | 1.240 | 15 |
| 26 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 23.655 | 1.252 | 21 |
| 27 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 23.684 | 1.281 | 28 |
| 28 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 23.717 | 1.314 | 9 |
| 29 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 23.732 | 1.329 | 5 |
| 30 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 23.761 | 1.358 | 35 |
| 31 | Will Stevens | Manor | 23.826 | 1.423 | 16 |
| 32 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 24.083 | 1.680 | 11 |
| 33 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 24.151 | 1.748 | 20 |
| 34 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 24.183 | 1.780 | 9 |
| 35 | Will Stevens | Manor | 24.450 | 2.047 | 30 |
| 36 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 24.564 | 2.161 | 9 |
| 37 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 26.103 | 3.700 | 20 |
2015 Belgian Grand Prix
- “If drivers respect track limits there’s no problem” – Spa responds to Pirelli over ‘debris’
- Podium earns Grosjean Driver of the Weekend win
- Track limits and DRS raise ire at Spa
- Top ten pictures from the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix
- 2015 Belgian Grand Prix team radio transcript
Alex W
24th August 2015, 11:07
I remember a team put 2 compounds on once before, but wasn’t penalized, i think it was Toro Rosso in 2011 or 2012, and i think maybe they were not even in the points, maybe that’s why they didn’t bother penalizing.
Sharon H (@sharoncom)
24th August 2015, 11:40
I think Force India might have done it a few years ago as well. IIRCC in those cases the car was brought back in on the next lap and the correct tyres fitted. Bottas just carried on with his stint in an illegal car.
Andy
24th August 2015, 13:34
@sharoncom The decision wasn’t Bottas to make, as you imply. The stewards could have required a pit stop, black flag, etc. but they didn’t. Williams was within their rights to keep racing if not required to do otherwise.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th August 2015, 6:34
No, it wasn’t Bottas that should have understood what happened. But the stewards, as soon as they saw it, reacted by penalizing Bottas. To prevent that, the team should have immediately called Bottas back in to change that tyre, just like STR and FI had done in earlier years Andy
Elmo Carstairs
24th August 2015, 12:06
IIRC Alonso did try a mix of compounds sometime in 2006 or 2008, on a drying track without much success.
Everyone assumes it was a mistake by Williams !!! It may just be a brainwave that went awry ….
terry
24th August 2015, 17:27
Maybe they were afraid of their right rear blowing out, so they used a medium compound there.
Night Fury (@toothless)
25th August 2015, 6:29
lol. So it wasn’t a mistake after all
OOlivet
24th August 2015, 12:39
It was clearly a mistake as you could see a man holding the correct tyre come into the picture hesitated took another look a the tyre he was holding in a tyre blanket and then walked back.
mantresx (@mantresx)
24th August 2015, 16:13
What is there to investigate? the mechanic was sleeping and simply got the tyres mixed. Since this is the first time it happens I don’t think there’s something wrong with their procedure, just human error.
Rob (@sleeper)
24th August 2015, 19:35
I didn’t hear any interview of Bottas, after the race. I wanted to hear whether the 3/1 mix improved handling!
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
24th August 2015, 19:55
@sleeper Surely there are tracks where option on the front and prime on the rear provides a long consistent stint.
Neil (@neilosjames)
25th August 2015, 23:43
Always did the trick in the Endurance races in early Gran Turismos…
Zack
26th August 2015, 9:16
Williams could avoid this again by giving the job of tyre stacking to someone who isnt colour blind