Valtteri Bottas has revealed a plastic bag became stuck in his front wing during the Bahrain Grand Prix and spoiled his car’s handling.
A piece of plastic could be seen in his car’s front wing during the closing stages of the race (above).“I had a plastic bag stuck on my front wing at some point, which was costing performance,” said Bottas. “So not the perfect race.”
Bottas ran second early in the race but was passed by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. “I had a great start to the race,” he said, “I managed to get into P2 but then on lap one into turn one I think the wind caught me up a bit, I braked a bit too late into turn one, trying to keep my position, and I lost two places – so back to fourth place.”
He regained second place at the end when the Ferrari drivers hit trouble. “In the end, luck was on our side and we’ll definitely take it,” said Bottas. “Especially me, after all the bad luck last year.”
The Mercedes driver, who missed out on a likely win in Azerbaijan last year when he ran over a piece of debris and suffered a puncture, sympathised with Charles Leclerc who lost the lead of yesterday’s race due to a power unit problem.
“Obviously hard luck for Charles, he was very strong,” said Bottas. “But it will come for him. I had to wait for more than 80 races for my first win, so I’m sure it’s going to be OK.”
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robinsonf1 (@)
1st April 2019, 14:18
Saw quite a few plastic bags on the track on TV. It was quite windy there though. Maybe they need a bin re-design at the Sakhir circuit.
F1FAN
1st April 2019, 15:47
Guys, I’m from Bahrain – it was windy past few days.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
1st April 2019, 14:26
Europe’s trying with all its regulations and politics and then there’s a huge continent which doesn’t give a single damn about environment. Yet we’re going to Vietnam, how splendid!
Lee1
1st April 2019, 15:26
To be fair it was massively windy and a few plastic bags blowing around is far less than we see in this country during a windy day…
hobo (@hobo)
1st April 2019, 21:44
Name checks out.
RB13
2nd April 2019, 10:21
Actually the only person who clearly doesnt give a damn about the environment is the President of the USA. Yes USA not Asia.
Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
1st April 2019, 14:37
Anyone else notice about 3/4 of the way into the race there were a couple of cars swerving over to the right on the start-finish straight seemingly to avoid a dark object that had come from the direction of the grandstand. Wasn’t picked up by Sky comms at the time (thought that’s Croft/Brundle for you).
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st April 2019, 14:37
First the oceans, now the racetracks. STOP single use plastics!
ColdFly (@)
1st April 2019, 15:54
technically it became at least second use ;)
@johnmilk
And I assume Bottas handed it in for recycling after the race, so the bag would bag yet another life, maybe this time as a recycled bag.
cm (@cm-cm)
2nd April 2019, 19:42
It also became a piece of movable aero…
Yemi
1st April 2019, 15:18
Tell that to the aquatic population lol
GeeMac (@geemac)
1st April 2019, 15:21
Good luck with that in the GCC, the place is an environmentalists nightmare. Best example of this I can think of: When you are buying your groceries, they will place every single meat item you purchase, which is already wrapped in plastic, in a separate plastic shopping bag…you end up taking hundreds of the things home a year.
F1oSaurus (@)
1st April 2019, 20:14
Driving a Mercedes F1 car is like sleeping on a pea under a pile of mattresses? Soooo sensitive
erikje
1st April 2019, 20:28
Yes, now we have two princesses.
hobo (@hobo)
1st April 2019, 21:45
How many races before we see an exhaust or floor slat on the Ferrari that releases bags?
David BR (@david-br)
1st April 2019, 22:54
Great Werner Herzog-narrated film by Ramin Bahrani about the life of a plastic bag. You can imagine a tragic sequel, Son of Plastic Bag blows into the 2019 Bahrain Formula 1, excitedly glues itself to the car of Valtteri Bottas, and finally blows away, traumatized, having been blamed for preventing Bottas from winning the race.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
2nd April 2019, 0:54
Got to be worth 1/10 every lap. That would explain the difference.
wayne
2nd April 2019, 4:29
why did they not pit bottas to remove the plastic.slap on new tyres also(if he had). surely he could have made up the time lost in the pits… i mean he has the beard now!
greg-c (@greg-c)
2nd April 2019, 13:04
I thought the beard was worth 2/10ths ?
rpiian (@rpiian)
4th April 2019, 21:29
Hah! Underrated comment.