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Mercedes reveal reason behind Valtteri Bottas' engine failure at Spanish GP

Team Mercedes has finally revealed the reason behind driver Valtteri Bottas' engine failure at Spanish Grand Prix.

Barcelona, Mat 23: A never before seen problem with the turbo has caused Valtteri Bottas's engine failure at the Spanish Grand Prix as revealed by his team Mercedes.

Bottas retired from the third place halfway during the Barcelona Grand Prix after surviving the first corner impact with Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen which also made them both retire right then.

Valtteri Bottas (Image courtesy: Valtteri Bottas Twitter handle)

However, the accident delayed Ferrari driver Vettel's progress and helped his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, grabbing the top spot.

Mercedes brought new motors for the Spanish GP redesigned for dependability, but while fixing an electrical fault a water leak was found which made Bottas opt out for the old previous engine.

It was suspected that the old power unit may have led to the damage, however, a post-race investigation by Mercedes has now affirmed that the dispute of Bottas's old motor in the race was created by a turbo issue they had not gone over before.

Regarding the Bottas's engine failure Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff addressed: “It was painful to lose 15 valuable points with Valtteri retiring from P3.

We've identified the root cause of the problem, which was the turbo. We haven't seen that defect before, which shows you that you need to be double diligent. This is a technical sport and if you stretch your limits, you'll encounter technical problems."

There's been little to separate Mercedes and Ferrari this year and the Mercedes boss admitted that the start of 2017 season has seen him again fall in love with Formula 1, with the competitions he is facing from Ferrari.

"We are in a massive fight with Ferrari. On one side, this is very exciting and challenging. But on the other side, it is going to stretch us to our limits. You cannot base your current assessment on the balance of power on just Barcelona.

“Every weekend will push us to the limit; this is the new reality of Formula One in 2017. The last three years were extraordinary. But this season I have re-discovered why I love the sport.

"I love the intense competition. This competition means that you won't be winning easily, but that you'll have a fierce fight on your hands.

"Because of that, the feeling is even greater when you manage to come out on top, as we did in Spain," Wolff added.

Hamilton won the last race in Spain to secure his second win of the season, the same number as Vettel and both of them will reignite their rivalry next week at the Monaco Grand Prix.

OneIndia News

Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 17:42 [IST]
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