“I hope I’m done with the penalties”, the wish of a Valtteri Bottas disappointed in the face of the third weekend out of four under the banner of penalties to be served on the starting grid. In fact, in the last four races, Mercedes has always seen one of the two W12s relegated to the starting grid. It was the turn of Bottas in Monza, Sochi and Austin, while Lewis Hamilton started with ten penalty positions on the starting grid in Turkey in Istanbul. Penalties became so frequent and related to the same component – the heat engine, ICE – that Bottas in the US only served five penalty positions instead of 10.
A situation that paints the actual difficulty that Mercedes faces in concluding the season without reliability problems with the components made available by the regulation. Faced with this drift, one wonders: but in Mexico it will be Hamilton’s turn to serve penalties on the starting grid? “We are looking for the right compromise between performance and reliability in this season finale – the words of the number one of Mercedes strategists James Vowles – a zero due to reliability in the race would be catastrophic in terms of a run-up to the world championship, so we are trying to manage this delicate phase in the best possible way. What can sometimes be understood as a sacrifice, such as Bottas’ penalty in the US, could bring great benefits in subsequent races ”. Hamilton with 12 points to recover in the Drivers’ classification, while Red Bull has suddenly returned to -23 among the Constructors.
In home Honda on the other hand, there don’t seem to be any obvious bells ringing about reliability. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez had to exceed the three foreseen by the regulation due to the accidents suffered respectively in Great Britain and Hungary.
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