Motorsport-Magazin.com – The Emilia Romagna GP 2021 in Imola was not only an absolute hit at the top. Valtteri Bottas and George Russell took it a little too literally and caused a serious accident that even interrupted the race.
As soon as the cars came to a standstill, discussions about the question of guilt began. Russell immediately ran to Bottas to read him the riot act. Naturally, the Finn saw it differently. The accident got special flavor because Russell is a Mercedes junior and squinted at Bottas’ cockpit. The Briton blamed this constellation in TV interviews for the fact that Bottas defended himself so hard.
“This is bullshit,” said Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff quickly. While the stewards came to the conclusion that no driver was primarily to blame for the accident, the Austrian sees it a little differently. “There are never situations in life in which one person is 100 percent to blame and the other is not at all. This situation should never have happened,” he added.
“But George shouldn’t have started this maneuver because the track has dried out. That meant risk,” said Wolff. But then the fact that bothered the powerful boss the most: “The other car was a Mercedes before him! In a Young Driver program you must never lose this global perspective! There is a lot for him to learn.”
So does Russell have to brake in his Williams for the factory Mercedes? “Yes, you have to see that this is a Mercedes,” says Wolff. “It’s wet so there is a risk to overtake. And the chances are bad for him anyway if the track dries up. I don’t want him to try to prove anything to us. One thing I can say is: Valtteri has been here for five years and he has never tried to prove anything to us. “
Mercedes loses development budget due to crash
Wolff went straight to talking to Russell on Friday evening. What exactly he said to his junior driver has not been recorded. However, the conversation should not have been too friendly. Because the Mercedes boss blames Russell not only for the failure of Bottas, but also indirectly for more serious problems.
“Our car can be written off almost completely,” said Wolff in view of the immense damage. “With the budget cap, that’s definitely not what we needed. It probably limits the upgrades we can make.”
The teams are allowed to spend a maximum of 145 million US dollars on the development and use of the racing cars in 2021. For the first time in the history of Formula 1 there is such an upper limit. Mercedes had to reduce its efforts enormously for this, as the world championship racing team was well above the targeted amount in recent years. The accident causes a further reduction in the development budget. “That means less performance on the car,” explains Wolff.
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