F1 News
Wolff stands up for Bottas: Team protocol led to poor result
Valtteri Bottas had contact with Charles Leclerc during the opening exchanges of the Hungarian Grand Prix which ended his chances of a decent result. However, the Mercedes team boss stands up for his Finnish driver and blames a team protocol for his poor result.
In the end, Bottas finished down in eighth. Before his contact with Leclerc, Bottas had a battle with teammate and eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton. Wolff reveals the team told their drivers to leave enough room for each other in the corners.
As a result, Bottas was forced to take action and he lost momentum. This led to contact with Leclerc who damaged Bottas' front wing. Wolff explains that the FIA might allow such moves, but the Mercedes duo isn't allowed to push those limits.
"We discussed this in the team. Even if the stewards deem the Leclerc and Verstappen incident at Austria correct, we don't deem it correct within the team. We leave space. So we knew that wasn't going to happen," Wolff told Autosport.
"It was just a really unfortunate half lap for [Valtteri]. There is an outside line outside Turn 2, and if you stick your nose out there and you are able to hold the position through the corner you are on the inside. We've seen it with the Toro Rossos and in Formula 2. The outside is a possible line."