Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll said the grid penalties their received for their role in the first-lap crash in Hungary would be more compromising at other circuits.
The pair were given five-place grid penalties for the Belgian Grand Prix, as a consequence of the multi-car collisions at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix which wiped out a quarter of the field and left others with damaged cars.However Bottas said Spa is a less harsh track to take a grid penalty at, as overtaking is easier than at other circuits.
“On this track, the race pace is quite important if you compare qualifying pace versus race pace,” Bottas explained. “So we need to focus on that [in] whatever we do in practice, but not forgetting I still need to try and qualify well.”
The Mercedes driver, who is currently fourth in the world drivers’ championship and suffered three retirements in the first half of the 2021 season, said that if he had to be moved down the pack anywhere, Spa at least offers opportunities to recover during the race.
“I don’t want to start out of the top 10, for example, but out of all the tracks to have a grid penalty it’s definitely on the good side of the list because racing is good here,” he said. “You can overtake if you have the pace, so race pace is going to be the key.”
Stroll said his penalty “doesn’t really change much,” for his own race.
“I’m focussed on what I could do,” said the Aston Martin driver. “It’s a track that you can overtake on, so there’s still a lot of a lot of opportunity and a long race ahead.”
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2021 Belgian Grand Prix
- Spa spectators who saw no racing offered prize draw for 2022 tickets
- ‘Wrong to award points for a couple of laps behind the Safety Car’ – Horner
- Hamilton offers “exclusive gift” to fans who attended Belgian GP wash-out
- Change rules to give points for qualifying if race can’t happen – Seidl
- “I apologised to the entire team for my mistake” – Perez
Rockgod (@rockgod)
26th August 2021, 14:14
So, what they’re actually saying is to go wild wrecking the opposition when the following race is on a circuit that’s easy to overtake.
Interesting tactics?
Lewisham Milton
26th August 2021, 14:44
they can only do that when they know where (and if) the following race is going to happen…
jff
26th August 2021, 14:45
And try to damage the competitor’s Power Unit so they still start behind you.
knightameer (@knightameer)
26th August 2021, 14:18
Even the penalised drivers themselves are mocking the FIA for such joke penalties.
Andy (@andyfromsandy)
26th August 2021, 15:37
When given a gift the least they could do is keep quiet about how it is not a real penalty at all.
Balue (@balue)
26th August 2021, 15:03
If Silverstone didn’t make it clear enough, this will show everyone that banzai moves is not really frowned upon in F1, so expect more of that.
Nandy
26th August 2021, 16:37
Pathetic, they both should have had race bans.
Dave
27th August 2021, 13:15
To this day Lando still wants Valtteri convicted.
Nimba (@nimba)
29th August 2021, 22:00
It mattered, after all .