A lack of grip to blame for Bottas' bad start?

Si Valtteri Bottas had largely built its success in Baku by perfectly defending its position against Lewis Hamilton, the Finn of Mercedes-AMG F1 lost big last Sunday when he saw this same Hamilton take the advantage at the first corner.

Very quickly after the checkered flag, the former pilot Williams had mentioned a « strange behavior of its clutch » to partly justify its implementation in medium action. In the traditional post-race debriefing published by the world champion team on social networks, another parameter would come into account according to Mercedes.

“We think it's a lack of grip on the pole position side, comments sports director Ron Meadows. If you study the starts of support races, very often the second, third or fourth drivers had a better start than the pole sitter. »

“It’s one of the elements, continues Andrew Shovlin, engineering manager. There is also a bit of slippage and there may be a poor connection with the clutch and this creates interactions. We will look at that this week, but currently we think the No. 1 factor is lack of grip, not a problem with the car. »

In the wake of his success in Baku, Bottas admitted that he could have done a better job during this departure procedure, indicating that he “had been a little cautious”.