Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Circuit of the Americas, 2021

I really hope we’re done with engine penalties for now – Bottas

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In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas hopes his third penalty for a power unit part change in four races is his last.

In brief

Bottas hoping for end to penalties

Having taken his third penalty for exceeding his allocation of power unit parts at the United States Grand Prix, Bottas hopes he has sufficient stock of working examples to complete the final five races without further grid drops.

“I really hope we’re done for now,” he said after Sunday’s race. “I think both of the engines are good in my engine pool, they seem to be okay. We haven’t detected any issues with them.

“So fingers crossed that I can go ’til the end now without penalties because the next races with a close championship battle, even if you get back [through the field] later, it really compromises the race.”

Bottas started ninth and finished sixth after taking a five-place penalty at Circuit of the Americas last weekend.

“It was difficult like I expected,” he said of the race. “What made it more tricky was in the first stint I was behind the AlphaTauri and I couldn’t get past so I obviously lost quite of bit of time. Unfortunately, there was no help from Safety Cars. I made some progress, but slowly.”

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Comment of the day

It was a brutal race for an unwell Sergio Perez with a broken drinks system:

Got to feel sorry for Sergio this time around. He showed signs throughout the weekend of being at least very close to Max’s pace. But illness and lack of hydration (not a good combo) impacted how much he could show.

Would he have finished better than third if he was able to show his pace? I doubt it considering the fine margins between Max and Lewis in the end. Though, I have no doubt he’d have finished closer to Lewis and Max, and maybe made Lewis’ life a little harder throughout the race.
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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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25 comments on “I really hope we’re done with engine penalties for now – Bottas”

  1. Bottas clearly wants his championship bonus.

    1. It would be fair to see a Lewis DNF though. We still have to balance out Silverstone and Hungary. Tainted season otherwise. If Lewis takes it, it better be with at least a 30 points lead or it will be a meaningless title.

      1. Yes, I think there’s like 45 points of luck in hamilton’s favor overall, the situation in the constructors isn’t as bad, mercedes deserves that a bit more, mainly because of having a 2nd driver more often on the pace than perez.

  2. Maybe a dumb question, but when I saw the tweet “Dear @F1, it is useless to bring celebrities to races and then they give no interviews to Martn Brundle and Sky” I was wondering if the celebrities are briefed to expect interviews from Sky personnel. And does F1 “bring” them, like give them access for free? Where do I sign up to be a celebrity?

    From a personal view, I’d much rather Martin interview actual race participants, team members and others from the F1 community. I don’t watch the grid walk to see non-racing celebrity interviews. Does Liberty think that having non-racing celebrity interviews will boost F1 viewership?

    Also, I don’t think heads of state had that much security on the grid. If they need that much of an entourage, maybe they ought to stay in the parking lot.

    1. some racing fan
      26th October 2021, 6:30

      Money talks. The same thing will likely happen in Miami, and maybe even at Monaco. The only 4 reasons those celebrities are there- particularly people like Megan Thee Stallion (who is from Texas) is to be seen, to network (those two likely in her case), or out of some kind of personal interest in F1, or that they are friends with Hamilton.

      Either they pay for those tickets, or Liberty may even pay them to make an appearance- that kind of thing works here. People in this country are often attracted to events that have high-profile celebrities involved in them. But those bodyguards should never have been there on the grid- who were they protecting her from? That is probably the safest place to be at a race track before the start of a race. Really dumb decision to allow those bodyguards on the track- made by really dumb people.

      1. Guest of RB. And why should she or anyone else speak to everyone who shoves a mic in her face and asks a dumb question?

      2. Usually the broadcast in the US is ESPN2 picking up the Sky broadcast about 10 minutes before race start. I could not believe it when I turned on the TV and they said “We are about an hour from race start.” F1 has caught on here big time – the only reason they would do that is to fill up TV time with ratings grabbing material to sell more commercials. F1 has never been ratings grabbing material here until now. Up until drive to survive, you had a heck of a time even finding the race. So from an American’s perspective, although DTS may be manufactured drama, it sure has made it much more convenient to follow this sport that I love.

    2. From a personal view, I’d much rather Martin interview actual race participants, team members and others from the F1 community. I don’t watch the grid walk to see non-racing celebrity interviews.

      Seconded. Brundle should focus on the drivers and team personnel on the grid walk.

      1. I’m sure he’s like to but is probably told that he “has” to interview a celebrity or two for PR purposes. Fans in the US seem to love their celebrities.

        1. Not this one. So sick of people becoming “important” because they can sing well with an autotuner.

    3. Honestly, last thing I care about is what a rapper or a celebrity/former tennis champion have to say about “what a fantastic venue, what an event, the fans, bla, bla…” I wouldn’t recognize most of them (haven’t even heard of anyone apart from Serena Williams). Not an issue for me at all, actually I usually mute them anyway. Nothing against them (after all, I don’t know of them so why would it be), but I find that American style TV small talk where everyone says the same thing, but actually says nothing, utterly boring and somewhat irritating. And obviously, as I’ve never heard of a random rapper, so that random rapper never heard of some random British guy from some Sly, Sky or whatever TV. Different worlds entirely, they just came to pose for PR purposes and chat with their peers, and all I care about is what’s related to the race.

      1. I’m only interested if they know a bit about F1 and can say something intelligible otherwise why waste precious broadcast time on uninformed nonsense or pointless blather?
        “So how do you like the weather today?”
        “It’s hot”

    4. He knew exactly what would happen. He saw a chance and he took it. He was making a point.

  3. some racing fan
    26th October 2021, 6:08

    Adelaide ’86 is one of the greatest GP’s of all time- it was fairly recently named the #1 greatest GP ever by Motor Sport Magazine. It has to be top 10- with Nurburgring ’57, Monza ’69 and ’71, Suzuka ’89, Monaco ’96, Spa ’98, Interlagos ’03 and ’12, and Montreal ’11.

    1. This is obviously highly subjective and prone to recency bias but surely interlagos ’08 has to be up there. I’d add nurburgring ’95 and ’99 to that too and maybe even Bahrain ’14. Going back before my time (I started watching F1 avidly in 1995), Monaco ’61 sounds like one of the all-time greats, also Monza ’67 (the detailed race report is a hell of a journey), Silverstone ’73 a forgotten classic, jarama ’81 (Villeneuve special) and countless others that could sit in that top 10. Perhaps if you can only pick 3 per decade, that would be a pretty good list.

      1. some racing fan
        26th October 2021, 23:27

        OK:

        1950’s:
        Monza ’56 (ultra-dramatic finish to championship, Collins gave Fangio his car)
        Nurburgring ’57 (Fangio’s legendary drive)
        Sebring ’59 (another dramatic final round)
        Honorable mentions: Pedralbes ’51, Bremgarten ’51, Monza ’54

        1960’s:
        Monaco ’61 (Moss’s legendary flat-out drive against superior Ferraris)
        Mexico City ’64 (ultra-dramatic finish to season)
        Monza ’69 (raw, flat-out, balls-to-the-wall action all the way through, first 4 finished within half a second)
        Honorable mentions: East London ’62, Monza ’67, Nurburgring ’68

        1970’s:
        Monza ’71 (closest ever finish (.01 between 1st and 2nd), even more raw, flat-out, balls-to-the-wall action all the way through, first 5 finished within half a second)
        Fuji ’76 (ultra-dramatic finish to season on rain-soaked track)
        Dijon ’79 (Villeneuve’s amazing drive and legendary battle for 2nd with Arnoux)
        Honorable mentions: Watkins Glen ’70, Zandvoort ’71, Buenos Aires ’73, Silverstone ’73, Silverstone ’75, Long Beach ’77

        1980’s:
        Jarama ’81 (Villeneuve’s legendary win with downforce-less Ferrari around twisty track, fending off 4 faster cars)
        Adelaide ’86 (ultra-dramatic finish to season)
        Suzuka ’89 (riveting battle at penultimate round between Prost and Senna)
        Honorable mentions: Buenos Aires ’80, Watkins Glen ’80, Imola ’81, Monaco ’81, Silverstone ’81, Hockenheim ’81, Monaco ’82, Austria ’82, Dijon ’82, Long Beach ’83, Kyalami ’83, Monaco ’84, Estoril ’84 and ’85, Zandvoort ’85, Kyalami ’85, Jerez ’86, Hockenheim ’86, Silverstone ’87, Jerez ’87, Mexico City ’87, Suzuka ’88, Rio ’89, Hockenheim ’89, Hungary ’89, Estoril ’89

        1990’s:
        Nurburgring ’95 (legendary race and epic drive by Schumacher, lots of drama throughout)
        Monaco ’96 (with Spa ’98 and Interlagos ’03 possibly the craziest F1 race of the last 30 years, constant drama and tension throughout)
        Spa ’98 (another bonkers race, rain soaked, massive accident at start, drama, unexpected victor)
        Honorable mentions: Phoenix ’90, Mexico City ’90, Ricard ’90, Adelaide ’90, Interlagos ’91, Magny-Cours ’91, Monaco ’92, Brazil ’93, Donington ’93, Silverstone ’93, Hockenheim ’93, Suzuka ’93, Suzuka ’94, Adelaide ’94, Suzuka ’95, Nurburgring ’96, Estoril ’96, Jerez ’97, Magny-Cours ’99, Nurburgring ’99

        2000’s:
        Hockenheim ’00 (insane race, constant drama, epic drive by Barrichello)
        Suzuka ’05 (thrilling race all throughout, epic drive by Kimi)
        Interlagos ’08 (thrilling all throughout, probably the best ever finish to a race)

        2010s:
        Montreal ’11 (awesome drive by Button, jaw-dropping finish to race)
        Brazil ’12 (roller-coaster race all throughout, epic drive by Alonso)
        Hockenheim ’19 (an amazing race, anyone could have won it)
        Honorable mentions: Melbourne ’10, China ’10, Turkey ’10, Montreal ’10, Abu Dhabi ’10, South Korea ’10, China ’11, Valencia ’12, Abu Dhabi ’12, Bahrain ’14, Montreal ’14, Hungary ’14, Hungary ’15, Austin ’15, Catalunya ’16, Baku ’17, Silverstone ’18, Austin ’18, Austria ’19, Interlagos ’19

        1. some racing fan
          26th October 2021, 23:33

          *2000s honorable mentions: Spa ’00, Suzuka ’00, Sepang ’01, Melbourne ’03, Interlagos ’03, Silverstone ’03, Monaco ’04, Imola ’05, Hungary ’06, Fuji ’07, Interlagos ’09 (also Hungary ’98 for the 90s)

        2. Obviously no spain 96, spa 97 or monaco 97, other interesting rain races.

  4. Same here. Hopefully, no more PU component change-incurred penalties.

    I see what Brundle (& Brunner) means, but trivialities. I couldn’t care less & never really have cared about celebrities attending as VIP guests.

    COTD: 100%.

    1. Bottas is probably in the clear but I won’t be at all surprised if Hamilton takes a penalty in one of the next two races just to make sure they have a couple of really good PU’s for the run home – they’re going to need everything to be working perfectly on their PU’s for the remainder of the season because a DNF could be fatal to his chances at Title no 8.

      My guess – Brazil (Mexico can be hard on PU’s and could damage a new one) but I could be way off.

  5. I hope Mercedes isn’t testing if they can run that engine mode they tried in FP1 without problems for all of next season.

  6. Dear Bottas, Mercedes needs more “reliability updates” to win this championship as it seems so keep your hopes low.

  7. And I think we are all done with Bottas being gifted the best car in F1 and driving it backwards most weekends! Time to go…

  8. From 9 to 6. What a clown this Bottas.

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