“It was surprising that they didn’t look at a penalty” – Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is unimpressed after the Mexico GP race stewards did not penalize Daniel Ricciardo for his apparent involvement in spinning Valtteri Bottas on the opening lap.
Valtteri Bottas went from pole-sitter to outside the top 10 in what was a tumultuous Mexico GP for him.
He started the race with the intention of giving up the lead to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, but also ended up losing track position to Max Verstappen. To make things worse, as he moved to the right to take the corner, Daniel Ricciardo in his McLaren made contact, spinning Bottas. Once the crowd cleared, he found himself last, in P18.
This did not impress Mercedes boss Toto Wolff one bit, who felt Ricciardo deserved a penalty for it.
“Yes, I think the stewards should have a look into it but at that point. In hindsight, it was surprising that they didn’t look at a penalty.”
LAP 4/71 SAFETY CAR ENDING
The moment of contact between Bottas and Ricciardo 💥
Both currently sit in P18 and P17 #MexicoGP 🇲🇽 #F1 pic.twitter.com/sSFblkFqUU
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 7, 2021
FIA disagrees with Mercedes
Michael Masi, though, defended the stewards, putting the decision of not penalizing Ricciardo on “a whole lot of different factors”.
“No, I don’t think there is a lack of consistency as you’ve got to look at everything on certain merits.
“You’ve got to look at each and every incident and see how it goes. For starters Turkey was wet, this was dry. Completely different corner configuration. There’s a whole lot of things.
“But as I said, I haven’t looked at the incident in great deal whatsoever.
“Having a look at the proximity of the cars of where they all are compared to each other, there’s a whole lot of different factors that come into it. The stewards’ view was that on this occasion it was a Turn 1 racing incident.”
Bottas eventually broke the track lap record on the final lap, preventing Verstappen from getting the crucial bonus point in the title race.
