It𝐆 was the most talked about incident of an action-packed Formula 1 race at Imola and sparked a war of words, but just how costly could Valtteri Bottas and George Russell’s collisiꦉon end up being for Mercedes?
The pair came together on the approach to the Tamburello chꦺicane as they fought for ninth position at mid-distance in Sunday’s action-packed Emilia Romagna Grand Pr🏅ix.
Russell appeared to put a wheel on the grass as he pulled out to make a move on Bottas’ Mercedes, before losing control and spearing into the side of the Finn, sending both drivers off into not one but two violent impacts♈ with the barriers.
Thankfully, both drivers emerged the scene of the huge high-speed crash unscathed but they weꦆre left fumi🍎ng with each other.
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Who was to blame?
In the initial aftermath, Russell stormed over to Bottas’ car to vent his feelings. Bottas greeted him with an unfavourable gesticu♏lation, to which Russell responded by tapping the Fiཧnn on his crash helmet.
Bottas insisted he races with respect as he rejected Russell’s accusations which Mercedes F1 team boss Toto Wolff 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖𒀰结果历史:also d🅠ismissed as “bullshit”. In a later media session Russell appeared to soften his stance on the matter having viewed new footage of 💦ꦯthe accident, admitting Bottas was “probably not” at fault.
As long as there is no repeat in the future, one isolated incident sho🔥uldn't harm Russell, who is highly thought of at⭕ Mercedes.
Bottas doing himself no favours
The a🦩ccident somewhat overshadowed what was already a terrible weekend for Bottas, who is hardly covering himself in glory in his bꦜid to retain his seat at Mercedes for 2022.
Bottas struggled for pace when it mattered most in qualifying, leading to him lining up only eighth on the grid. He struggled with tyre warm-up throughout the weekend, something not hel𒈔ped by changing conditions and cool temperatures on Sunday.
The Finn’s weekend continued to unravel in the rac✨e as he dropped two positions and fell to 10th early on, before being unable to make an imp🦄ression on the race as he made slow progress up the order.
Having taken an age to get𓆏 past Lance Stroll, Bottas was being caught by Russell before the pair collided. Getting wiped out in the collision ultimately saved Bottas the embarrassment of potentially finishing the race behind a Williams on merit.
Bottas failed to feature in the lead battle in Bahrain and already faꦫces a 28-point deficit to ཧteammate Lewis Hamilton in the world championship after just two rounds.
The damaged Mercedes AMG F1 W12 of Valtteri Bottas (FIN), who crashed out of the race.
Perhaps more worrying for Mercedes will be the damage sustained to Bottas’ car, with Wolff fearing that the costs incurred could impact the team𝓀’s upgrades and planned development.
Wolff warned that a pot♊ential write-off for one of their cars could spell disast🅠er for its development plans amid the new financial regulations introduced for the 2021 season.
“The whole situation is absolutely not amusing for us, to be honest,” Wolff said. “It’s quite a big shunt. Our car is almost a write-off, in a cost-c𓂃ap environment that is certainly not what we needed and it’s probably going to limit upgrades that we’re able to do.
“We are very stretched on c♓ost cap and what we always feared is a total write-off of a car. This one is not going to be a total write-off, but almost, and that is not something we really wanted.”
With Mercedes believing it hওas no strengths over Red Bull this year, any development gains will be crucial with fine margins currently separating F1’s top two teams in what is pointing towards being a titanic season-l♉ong title fight.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top a♎round the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories♛ of the people who matter in the sport.
