0
Valtteri Bottas could be forced to take a grid penalty for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in just over one week.
Abu Dhabi hosts the final round of the season, as it has done since 2014. The title has been decided at the final round twice in the turbo-hybrid era.
However, Bottas is firmly out of championship contention this year as teammate Lewis Hamilton picked up his sixth world drivers' title at the US Grand Prix earlier this month.
Last time out in Brazil, Bottas suffered his second retirement of the season, pulling over to the side of the road after smoke starting billowing from his engine while he was chasing Alexander Albon.
MORE: Bottas couldn't feel loss of power before retirement
Mercedes says it is assessing the condition of the engine before it decides on whether or not it needs to be replaced for the final race of the season.
As Bottas has already reached the limit on engines that can be used penalty-free throughout a season, any such change would result in a grid drop for the Finn.
"We have a number of questions about Valtteri’s engine," said Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' Trackside Engineering Director on the team's Pure Pit Wall debrief.
"Before we could even see any smoke on the TV, we were monitoring the oil level and we could that see we were losing oil at a relatively slow rate and a rate that we thought might still make the end of the race.
"Now, when you started to see the smoke, the rate at which the oil was being consumed increased and eventually the car actually switched itself off.
"This is a protection mechanism for the power unit. It saw low pressure and then it switched itself off to avoid further damage.
"Now, that power unit has come back to Brixworth in the UK, they are going to be looking at it today and into the night and they will be making an assessment of whether there has actually been any damage and whether or not we will need to take a penalty with Valtteri in Abu Dhabi.”
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
134,147 comments on Sauber
2 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Valtteri Bottas
612,040 comments on Mercedes 57 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Mercedes
Replies (0)
Login to reply