Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Baku City Circuit, 2018

Bottas “heartbroken” after losing win three laps from home

RaceFans Round-up

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Quotes: Dieter Rencken

In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas says losing victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix due to a puncture was heartbreaking.

What they say

Bottas’s reaction to the race – and his immediate plans – were as follows:

[I’m] heartbroken. It felt like a really good race until then. Just losing everything like that in the very end, it hurts. But what can you do? I didn’t see any debris, I didn’t feel it. I guess we were unlucky today.

I’ll probably get hammered. That’s maybe the best. And then move on.

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Comment of the day

F1 had another action-packed grand prix in Baku yesterday but the race promoters are weighing up whether to keep the event going beyond 2020.

Baku has it all: it’s unique, it’s very challenging for the drivers and it looks amazing on TV. Even the best drivers in world are struggling to master it. To me that’s so much more engaging than seeing them race on tracks where every inch of it has been analyzed and dissected to the point where it’s very predictable.

Liberty should dump the punishing and greedy Ecclestone contract and renegotiate a fair one to keep Baku on the calendar for many years. It’a a gem.
Kenny Schachat (@Partofthepuzzle)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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69 comments on “Bottas “heartbroken” after losing win three laps from home”

  1. Calum Menzies
    30th April 2018, 0:05

    First Baku race was awful. So boring but it’s come alive the last 2 years (and has always been fun in the videogame!).

    1. 1st race was massively underated, not much overtaking but for that season more than okay. Giedo is golden.
      Ferrari choking, another 1-2 weekend lost, Bottas lucky but the even more unlucky again and max over the top, where Lewis stands, I hope the start of the season doesnt end, surely from Barcelona onwards its going to be Mercedes and Lewis starting to deliver and they don’t mess about.

      1. Giedo should consider a backup career as a pundit.

        1. He really should. His tweets are hilarious

    2. LMAO. The track is really easy to drive in f1 2017. In real life, it is even worse than Monaco.

      1. The track is so satisfying to get right in F1 2017 due to the raised kerbs in many places. In F1 2016 it was way way too easy but it requires great precision in the latest installment.

      2. I find it one of tve hardest to get right for the full 50 odd laps.

  2. I feel for Danny too. Max seemed too eager not to lose to him than to mive forwards. And those tiny moves during braking will never be safe… Time to put a stop, it’s way too dangerous

    1. As soon as it was Max’s team mate trying to overtake him, I immediately said “this is not going to end well”.

      I think Verstappen would rather sacrifice a race than let a team mate get past. All or nothing “I must beat him” mentality.

      1. I think you are right. I would imagine Verstappen is on a considerable amount of money and the team expects him to perform. He needs to justify this and the first person he must beat would be his team mate in an equal car.
        So far this year he’s not doing so good.

      2. But equally, you don’t want that lion spirit to be taken away. I’ve said it before, you can’t expect to have two guard dogs in the car and for them to behave like puppies.

  3. I couldn’t agree more with comment of the day.

    Regarding the Red Bull incident. I’ve done my own small analysis using the dashed road markings that run parallel down that part of the track. After Ricciardo had moved left to commit under braking, Verstappen moves back left by one car width. We saw Ricciardo’s pass on Bottas in China, they both judged it to perfect precision with one car width. It seems to me that Verstappen moving that one car width back over made the difference between what could have been a perfectly judged overtake and what actually happened

    1. @strontium
      I agree with you dor most parts. But Ricciardo is depending on the other driver to move out of the way quite some time now. This was an accident waiting to happen and it could have happened in the last race if Bottas had closed the door. Yes, it was a great and ballsy move in China but I don’t think it’s a perfectly judged overtake if you are dependant on the opponent to leave you by.

      I don’t even want to begin with Verstappen. He is a potentially great driver but mentally he has quite some growing to do.

      1. @matthijs I completely agree with you, and just to be clear I wasn’t trying to put all the blame on Verstappen. It took both of them to keep it clean in China and it took both to have the collision yesterday.

        I thought after China it was only a matter of time before Ricciardo had a crash and when I saw Verstappen emerge ahead it was obvious it was coming. Of course, however, one has to look at their histories too. This is rare for Ricciardo, Verstappen though…

        1. @strontium there is no need for you to explain who you think is to blame, I respect your opinion anyway and I think you summarize it well. However, if you look at the histories: one year ago Verstappen was where Ricciardo is now. Most of Verstappens moves in 2015-2016 were beautiful even though they were extremely (overly?) aggressive. Now, people refuse to give the room to Verstappen they gave before so he crashes. I’m just saying Ricciardo could be heading the way Verstappen is now: from overtake hero to maniac.

  4. I’ve always looked at Grosjean as a competent journeyman F1 driver, but not one of the “special” ones. As someone who is hoping to see Haas do well, when he was announced as their 1st hire, I figured that he was probably a pretty good pick. Highly experienced, fast enough, and likely to provide good engineering and setup feedback to the developing team. For the most part I think that he has done ok for Haas, but I’m beginning to think that he may well be out of a ride next year if he doesn’t turn things around. I know it’s a bit early in the season to be saying such things, but I’m just not getting a good vibe. A nice run of regular points could turn that around though.

    1. I never rated either haas driver, but with haas its about ambition and realistic goals, no top driver wants to drive for a team running b spec parts like SFI used to when they begun

      . Ricciardo was really patient with Max but then after the team gave the overcut to Max, you just cant keep yourself restrain. And max drives on the mirrors so he just cant let go.
      Baku has always been great fun cotd is right about the tv spectacle, the cameras the corners all looks great. The 1st race was met with great resistance, people brought up social problems and then when Lewis didnt perform that year it was rated way below reality, thankfully since then it has earned whag it deserves.

      1. @peartree if i recall, SFI never used b spec parts… they always did it their way.

        1. @fer-no65 not quite. From 09 or maybe 10, SFI ran Mclaren “backends”. So Mercedes/mclaren engine and gearbox and also rear suspension and crash structure.

      2. Ric received the undercut.. potential the best option and as first driver he got the tires first.
        VER had a great inlap with purple sectors.. he did it on merit.
        The RIC pitstop was even 0.2 seconds shorter.

        1. In baku the overcut was clearly the right choice.

  5. So Grosjean first blames Ericsson, now he bumped a switch? Come now, Romain……

    1. His name is Remoan – Remoan Groanjean

    2. So Grosjean first blames Ericsson

      He never blamed Ericsson, what is it with everyone’s ears? That was his mechanic (or whoever answered the call) speculating, not Grosjean himself.

    3. He is so aggressive to warm his tyres…

    4. In fairness, Ericsson would have been fairly easy to rule out on replay, what with him being 2 corners away at the time of the collision…

  6. Danny Ric should never of been reprimanded for that. Why doesn’t every driver just keep weaving on the straights to block someone.

  7. Will there be an investigation as to how that piece of debris got there and what it was missed or does something that destroys drawer?

    I may be being a bit unfair but if it had happened to Vettel or Hamilton, would the handling of it be any different.

    So gutted for Bottas – that’s two in a row now.

    1. That was Magnussen putting Gasly into the wall the same time Vettel overshoot. See picture above.

  8. 3 professional single seater race car drivers out in support of Dan. Nuff sed ?

    1. Hit post too soon.

      I can’t see how Dan can be blamed here. Max was pushing the limits a fair bit throughout the race, the crash was coming.

      For me, this will be the weekend that Dan decides to leave Red Bull. He wasn’t to blame, but took flak to keep the prodigal son and his disciples happy. Is Max Verstappen the brand, bigger than the team? So much that Horner didn’t (couldn’t?) call on team orders? As a manager, your loyalty is to your organization, constructors points are you life blood (in a sense), hence it was really irresponsible of him to not impose team orders towards the end of the race.

      To be clear, I’m no fan of team orders, but there needs to be a balance. We want to see drivers go flat out wheel to wheel, but also want to see drivers fight for world championship. Losing points like this does not help. At some point in the race, Red Bull should have made the call.

      1. For me, this will be the weekend that Dan decides to leave Red Bull.

        I’d agree, @jaymenon10 – if not the triggering factor, it will definitely influence his decision greatly.

      2. I agree – this was the weekend that has helped Dan’s decision making.

        I just can’t see him wanting to be stuck with Max unless Max is given a very swift kick but they seem unwilling to tell him to reign in his temperament.

        I expect a lot more contact in the coming weeks as I doubt Dan will bother getting out of Max’s road any more, nor will any of the other drivers.

      3. There were team orders but they couldn’t figure it out what multi 333 meant

        1. Ha ha, that’s the best comment I’ve read about this incident @johnmilk :-)

        2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          30th April 2018, 16:43

          Ha-ha-ha – awesome!

      4. @jaymenon10 I don’t think the Verstappen brand is as big as people think… if he’s dropped (which can’t be too far off at the current rate surely) then I think most fans will realise that it’s justified. Maybe not in the Netherlands, but you know, I’m sure plenty of Russians were very upset about Kvyat!

        1. Great racers receive a lot of criticism.. nothing new there.
          From hero to zero is only one drive away in social media .

    2. Maybe you just want to consider, that all of them race in Indycars though @jaymenon10, where they are not allowed to do ANY movement to make an overtake harder.

      In F1, as several people have already pointed out above, you have to count on your rival being there and wanting to stop you from overtaking – that is why Verstappen trying to get past Lewis in China was never going to work. And Daniels passing only works like it did on Bottas when the other driver is in a position where he knows Daniel is getting past anyway (because of the tyres etc) so they give room to avoid risking a crash, and just take the remaining points.
      With Verstappen, it was never likely that he would feel like giving that room, so maybe it just was not well judged to have a go there and then.

  9. ”It is necessary to allow teams to use more fuel, increase its consumption and return refueling.”
    – Bringing back in-race refuelling wouldn’t any good for on-track overtaking, so I definitely wouldn’t bring it back.
    That tweet of Van Der Garde, though, LOL. I agree with the COTD.

    1. ”It is necessary to allow teams to use more fuel, increase its consumption and return refueling.”

      @jerejj – I had to scroll back to find out what you were referring to, and I then realized why I’d scrolled past it, it was something Bernie said.

    2. ‘wouldn’t do any good’ – How did I manage to forget to include the word ‘do’ in between, LOL.

  10. Max might have raw speed, but he will never be a world champion.

    I have been saying it for 3 years now and every fortnight he continues to prove me correct in new and unimaginable ways.

    Webber realised where he truly sat in the team in 2010 but never acted upon it because he at least had the advantage of driving the best car on the grid. Ricciardo should wake up the the fact that history is repeating, but there are better options around.

    1. @kazinho I would not be so sure about it. Vettel was simply better than Webber 90% of the time, which is not the case with Ricciardo and Verstappen. I guess that Red Bull feel that Ricciardo is the more complete driver at the moment, while Verstappen has more raw speed. So they have two superstars with different strengths – what could be better? As long as they do not crash into each other, of course…

      I think it is really so that Ricciardo just wants to be in the fastest car and if he believes that there is a good chance Red Bull will build it soon, then he will stay with the team. Verstappen & Marko are not going to be the decisive factors. As for the other options, Mercedes is clearly one as they have always treated both drivers equally and Hamilton can be beaten. As for Ferrari, I am not so sure, they have had a pretty clear number one driver policy since 2010 and for many years before that. But if Ricciardo thinks that Red Bull cannot win the championship over the next three years or so and if other top teams are genuinely interested in him, then anything can happen.

  11. Perez never seated in a winning car, has 8 podiums, no current driver has that record, the most underrated driver ever.

    1. @juanmelendezr1

      How about Raikkonen? He’s gotten plenty of victories in the number two Ferrari that the team will never allow to win.

      1. @philipgb Kimi is rated, at least historically. However, I agree with you that Ferrari is obliging him to drive below his capabilities.

  12. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    30th April 2018, 7:01

    With a slight twist of fate we could be sat here talking about Valterri’s 3 wins on the bounce and can anyone stop him. I really feel for the guy.

  13. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    30th April 2018, 7:03

    I admire Max in a lot of ways but if there were 2 Max’s racing each other wheel to wheel, there would be an incident 10 out of 10 times. You can’t say that about anyone else.

  14. Nice balanced set of social media responses there, Keith ;-)

    I liked the Anthony Davidson analysis. Racing incident, Verstappen moving back a tad was borderline, but just as borderline is the Ricciardo move, the one that always, (and people said this last race as well, when it worked, but were shouted down), and I mean always, puts the driver he’s overtaking in the position of crashing or losing a position. Everyone went on and on about ‘Vercrashing’, about the dangerous Max, etc, but Ricciardo’s signature move is as dangerous, and he gets away with it. Now he hasn’t. Both at fault: stewards were bang on.

    1. Yes, I think this accident was bound to happen for both of them. Max has allways been right on (or over) the limit with defending and this time it cost him (and the team) dearly.

      For Daniël on the other hand, those late lunges and divebombs had to go wrong sometime. Also agree with Anthony Davidson’s analysis. The situation could have been been avoided if RB managed it better.

    2. Excellent analysis by Anthony indeed, here it is for those interested: https://streamable.com/zcwrf

    3. Pink Peril
      1st May 2018, 5:07

      I agree there is fault on both sides there. However, I do think RBR should have managed the situation better. The team has done this before with a Marko-protected driver with a massive ego and questionable racecraft. Did they not learn anything from last time around? If RBR loses Ricciardo as a result, then on their heads be it. Also agree with everyone who said it was an absolute cracker of a race. I was gutted for Valterri at the end though.

  15. immediately after the race i though vettel was the unlucky one because he was cruising to a win and then the safety car ruined everything. but I think bottas might well have won without the safety car. he had ~11 seconds on vettel so he could have pitted, put some ultra-softs on and blasted the last 10 laps and been right on vettel’s tail before the end of the race. mercedes had a top speed advantage (i think) so it would have been a fairly straightforward pass.

    1. so the question is why did ferrari pit vettel when they didn’t need to? another strategy blunder perhaps?

      1. @frood19

        why did ferrari pit vettel when they didn’t need to?

        Because they lost nothing by pitting him. Due to the SC & race control getting cars to drive through the pit lane because of the debris at T1 Bottas was going to stay in the lead regardless of if Vettel stopped or not.

        Additionally Bottas & most behind him stopped for Ultra soft’s which was the tyre to have at the end so not stopping would have left him at a performance disadvantage.

        1. @stefmeister no, i meant why did they pit him earlier in the race. bottas showed it was possible to stay out much longer. they could have just mirrored bottas. read the mark hughes article on motorsportmagazine website – he explains it much better than me (though i was pleased he came to the same conclusion).

          1. @frood19 It was a mistake indeed. However, Bottas’ pace on old tyres was better than Vettel’s, so they had to pit him sooner or later, but they still pitted him too early.

      2. Because he would have been eaten alive on the brakes into T1 if he didn’t.

  16. Bottas is having a great season start, it’s a shame he deserved to win. So sorry for him.

    About the SC: drivers always complain about its speed and we know it’s not about who’s at the wheel but the pure performance of the car itself. Is there a reason behind the choice of not using a faster car? Security, probably, but SC could slow down a bit in the incident area and keep a good pace otherwise. Other things coming to my mind are not to lose too many race laps, contract with Mercedes and maybe avoid potential problems with the SC itself (the more you go up, the more you also need race-specs tires and brakes temperatures and so on).

    Any ideas about a better SC model?

      1. there is more than one? ahah

  17. I agree with the COTD. The Azerbaijan GP has obvious shortcomings. Firstly, the race is used as a propaganda tool by Aliyev’s regime (as shown by the News AZ article in the round-up). Secondly, marshaling must be improved. However, we have now had two thrillers in a row in Baku and the circuit is clearly different from the rest of the calendar – which is already an achievement in the era of Tilke tracks and classic races that often fail to live up to the expectations of the modern times.

  18. Lest we forget…we lost Roland Ratzenberger 24 years ago today.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      30th April 2018, 16:46

      @geemac yeah :(

      and Ayrton Senna the next day

  19. “So maybe after so many years Mercedes it would be nice to have a Ferrari Safety Car.”
    Probably because that would catch fire and require a second safety car before the first one ended to recover the safety car!

  20. Wouldn’t mind a new Safety Car.
    It’s been Mercedes a long time, and it’s done a good job. Lets spice it up and bring something different to the front of the grid. We do have several options! Plenty of super cars quick enough to give the Mercedes a run for it’s money, and be fully reliable at the same time.

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