MELBOURNE, Australia — Valtteri Bottas’ shunt during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix has left Mercedes boss Toto Wolff concerned from a psychological point of view.
Bottas had just started his first flying lap in Q3 when he ran wide on the exit of Turn 2 and spun into the barriers, ending his session and bringing out the red flag. While the Finn hasn’t been able to match Hamilton’s pace throughout the weekend, he was looking good for a front row start before the crash, but will now likely have to settle for 15th with a new gearbox all but certain to be fitted in his car.
Wolff, who reacted to the incident by swearing, says while it is always disappointing to crash in qualifying the real concern he has is with how this will impact his driver’s confidence.
« My reaction with the F-word was about the psychological effect it could have on Valtteri, » Wolff said. « This is a moment when you could start to question yourself and this in race one is not good for the psychology of the driver.
« You know where you lack time, but then you carry too much speed into Turn 1, the grip is not there, and you shunt it into the wall.
« We are trying to give him all the support we can and obviously it’s very early days for our team championship, but starting P15 in Melbourne is not an easy starting position. »
Bottas spent much of 2017 playing rear-gunner to Hamilton and was unable to match or better the world champion’s pace on a consistent basis. However, he says he has already moved on from the incident and is already focusing on Sunday.
« I accept I made a mistake and initially I was very disappointed but I’m already looking forward to the race, » Bottas said. « It can happen anywhere, sometimes you get away with it but this time I didn’t. Everyone makes mistakes, so there’s no big war inside my head. In the next qualifying I’ll go flat out again and will take risks. »
Fortunatelty for Bottas, Wolff said there wasn’t a whole lot wrong with the car, other than the gearbox, despite a 27G impact with the wall.
« Everything we have looked at so far looks okay, » said Wolff. « We have scanned it and now we hope that when we put it all back together there is nothing we haven’t seen.
« The chassis is okay. We are lucky because it was a big shunt. »
Rolex Australian Grand Prix Schedule on ESPN Networks (all times Eastern)
Sat., March 24
Qualifying, 2 a.m., ESPN2
Sun., March 25
On the Grid, 12:30 a.m., ESPN2
Race, 1 a.m., ESPN2
Race (encore),11 a.m., ESPN2
Race (encore), 1 p.m., ESPNEWS
Race (encore), 9 p.m., ESPNEWS
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/22894972/toto-wolff-worried-valtteri-bottas-australian-gp-qualifying-shunt-shatter-confidence
