Mercedes explains Lewis Hamilton-Valtteri Bottas team orders

Mercedes

Mercedes explains Hamilton-Bottas team orders

Bottas was allowed past Hamilton at the Austrian Grand Prix

Ewan Gale

Wednesday 7 July 2021 18:27

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Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has explained why the team waited before allowing Valtteri Bottas to overtake Lewis Hamilton at last weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was ahead of Bottas at the Red Bull Ring until damage caused a reduction of downforce at the rear, resulting in a serious pace drop-off which allowed his team-mate and McLaren's Lando Norris to close in.

The Finn was initially told not to race the seven-time champion but as Norris threatened to challenge both drivers, Mercedes ordered a swap to allow Bottas past and ultimately finish second, whilst Norris overtook Hamilton for the final podium position.

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"Initially, once we had diagnosed the performance problem on Lewis' car, we were just seeing where his lap times actually stabilised," explained Shovlin.

"But it came clear pretty early on that he was going to find it impossible to defend against Lando Norris behind.

"We were worried that Valtteri in the middle of that battle was going to ultimately be vulnerable but what we were waiting for was, actually, for Lando to get close enough where he was a risk to Valtteri and that was the trigger for us to invert the order.

"So you saw Lewis let Valtteri go by and then ultimately, Lando was able to overtake Lewis but as we said, once we understood the extent of the damage, we concluded pretty early on that hanging onto that third place was going to be effectively impossible."

Mercedes explains Bottas pace-drop was for strategic reasons

During the race, Bottas could be heard telling his team over the radio that he was aiming for 'Plan A', before reducing his pace and dropping back from Hamilton's turbulent air.

This, as Shovlin commented, was a strategic decision in order to ensure a one-stop strategy was achievable.

"We brief them in the morning but basically Plan A was a one-stop, Plan B would have been a two-stop," added Shovlin.

"We don't have that the same every time because it is a bit obvious for our competition to see what we are doing but Valtteri came on just to confirm that the way he was driving, he was thinking of driving to the one-stop.

"He had to increase the amount of [tyre] management and he just dropped back to get a bit of free air because it actually gives the car more downforce and looks after the tyres more easily. He was keeping us up to date with that change."