“We will need to let Pirelli have a look” – Mercedes couldn’t prevent Max Verstappen from taking the bonus point for the fastest lap in Qatar after Valtteri Bottas had to stop his race in the pits.
Mercedes director of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin has come up with the answer to a question that troubled viewers watching the Qatar GP – Why did Valtteri Bottas retire from the race when there was no obvious issue with the car?
He was expected to pit for soft tyres and ensure Max Verstappen does not win the bonus point, which he did eventually. As it turns out, there were indeed issues with the Mercedes, all resulting from a front-left tyre failure Bottas suffered in Lap 33.
“No, no. It was rapid [tyre failure] and at the most inconvenient time on the lap where you are just committing to that final corner and there is no opportunity to get into the pits.
“We just made a decision that we would bring the car in. We couldn’t really see how we would get into the points with him and there was quite a lot of aero damage.
“We were starting to get another vibration on that set of tyres, whether it was that or not we will need to let Pirelli have a look at them.
“But ultimately, we decided scoring anything was such a long shot that it just made sense to bring the car back in.”
