The stewards have issued a five-place grid penalty to Valtteri Bottas which he may never serve.
The Sauber driver collected two penalties during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for collisions with different drivers. His second, with Kevin Magnussen, led to his retirement.The stewards held Bottas responsible for the collision and handed him a five-place grid penalty for his next race. “Car 77 [Bottas] was on the inside of car 20 [Magnussen] on the approach to turn six, misjudged his braking significantly and collided with car 20 which was entering the corner on the regular racing line,” they ruled.
“As car 77 retired from the race, the stewards determine that a grid drop is warranted which is the equivalent of a drive-through penalty and three penalty points are warranted due to the significant misjudgement of the driver.”
As Bottas was in his final race for Sauber and has no race contract for 2025, it remains to be seen whether his penalty will ever be applied.
“It was my bad,” he admitted after the race. “I was defending with old tyres and I tried to brake as late as I could but I just couldn’t stop the car.”
Bottas’ race began to go awry on the first lap when he tangled with Sergio Perez. The stewards also ruled he was entirely to blame for that collision, saying Bottas: “attempted to overtake car 11 [Perez] on the inside into turn six, but ran over the inside kerb and hit the rear left wheel of car 11.”
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The stewards gave Bottas two penalty points for the Perez collision, meaning he went from none to a total of five in his final race as a grand prix driver for the foreseeable future.
“It’s definitely not the ideal finish but these things happen,” said Bottas. “It’s racing, it’s not the first time. Everything just went wrong since lap one.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
8th December 2024, 18:13
He needs to either make a one-off substitution next season or return as a full-time driver in 2026, if not beyond.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
8th December 2024, 18:20
He needs to write a “To whom it may concern” letter to FIA
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
8th December 2024, 18:30
With his latest calendar enclosed, if that helps.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
9th December 2024, 3:03
Lol – that would probably get him another grid penalty :-)
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
8th December 2024, 18:39
I think JB still has a penalty to serve.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th December 2024, 19:35
You mean the from the 2017 Monaco GP? I totally forgot about that.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
8th December 2024, 20:04
Put ‘em in the Race of Champions, they’ll start fifth and sixth.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th December 2024, 11:59
:-)
MG1982 (@mg1982)
8th December 2024, 19:35
Probably the right time to go for BOT. The collision with KMag looked like a rookie mistake. Pretty much unacceptable given his experience in F1.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
8th December 2024, 21:39
It did indeed look poor, but he makes less mistakes than pretty much any driver on the grid, and has only on 4 occasions been deemed responsible for his own or others retirements across 12 seasons. And one of them was on Stroll in Mexico which basically nobody thought was his fault.
I don’t think this single poor performance is at all reflective of Bottas as a driver. Until that 2nd crash, his pace was still fine and he’s actually been pretty good all season and basically had the biggest margin over his team mate compared to any other driver, despite Zhou having points.
I think it is pretty likely that Bottas will be back when there are 22 cars on the grid.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 23:54
Less mistakes than “pretty much anyone on the grid?” Not sure you’ve watched this guy’s career closely enough.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
9th December 2024, 7:26
I’ve been watching close enough to know the exact number of times he’s been responsible for his own or others retirements. That averaged out is just one time every 3 years and that is extremely rare. He also didn’t have any penalty points until now, and has gone a full season without collecting any in the past. Bottas while not the best, certainly makes less mistakes than pretty much every other driver of the last decade. But being cautious as he usually is has made he’s race craft somewhat weak.
Doh
10th December 2024, 19:07
So the one you mentioned with stroll. On Kimi in Russia, last weekend with kevin and 2021 Hungary?
Ray West (@raynaud2211)
8th December 2024, 19:37
Is he not going to Williams?
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
8th December 2024, 19:52
No, they have Sainz and Albon contracted for next year.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
8th December 2024, 21:40
It is looking likely that he’s going to be confirmed as a Mercedes reserve driver over Mick Schumacher, which shows quite a lot about what they think of Schumacher. A German driver in a German team not being given the chance to race for them, or even continue being the reserve driver either.
Gavin Campbell
8th December 2024, 23:05
The Mercedes team isn’t interested in passport racing. Very few serious big teams are anymore (unless it’s a toss up between two top tier options it might tip the scales a touch)
Mercedes F1 are fully based in the UK, owned 1/3 by Daimler (the Mercedes car company) and a 1/3 by Toto Wolff. The other third is owned by Briton Sir Jim Ratcliff (Ineos).
Mick Schumacher was no more than fine as a F1 driver. Bottas won a lot of races for Mercedes and he’s also started a heck of a lot more than Mick, hence his engineering feedback is probably superior.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 23:56
10 wins over 5 seasons in that car is an utterly pathetic total. 2 wins per season in the most dominant car in history.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
9th December 2024, 7:38
It was a dominant car, but in 2017 and 2018 especially Ferrari were very close. 2018 many believe Ferrari was the best car. 2019 and 2020, Mercedes were clearly strongest, but out of all of the years Bottas was at Mercedes, the team wasn’t even close to dominating the field to the level it was during 2014-2016. If Bottas was at Mercedes in these years, he will have got well over 10 wins in just 3 years.
10 wins isn’t very good, but not bad given Hamilton was on peak form and ranked here as the best driver every season he was teammates with Bottas.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:45
How many wins did Hamilton have during the times they were teammates? It’s probably 4x the number. So, yeah, Lewis or not, 10 is anemic. Pre-2024 Perez level driving. OK, Bottas’ troughs were never nearly as bad, but the guy is Gasly level at best in his prime.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
9th December 2024, 4:20
Yeah…..nah
Need a bit of fact checking there. Not Just the ancient Norse for Thor’s Sword instead of a puppy
No more hints though.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
9th December 2024, 4:21
@Gavin Campbell that was
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
9th December 2024, 4:27
Good grief why are these posting randomly?
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
9th December 2024, 13:52
Bottas said that his move to Sauber was a mistake but only in hindsight. It’s actually stunning how Bottas’ 3 year stint resembles his compatriot’s, Kimi Raikonnen’s, 3 year stint at Alfa Romeo. They both had excellent first half seasons when they joined followed by horrible 2nd half season and then 2 years of languishing at the bottom.
I think Bottas’ last race summed it all up.
The Dolphins
9th December 2024, 21:14
So if/once he is confirmed as reserve driver for Mercedes and if he needs to substitute for George or Kimi he will need to at that point serve the penalty? I don’t understand if there are limitations on when the penalty would need to be served?