The consequences of the Russell – Bottas collision
The Russell-Bottas collision was one of the most striking images of the race at Imola. But the consequences will be far more important for the future than the sporting result alone.
There is a golden rule in motorsports: do not collide with your teammate. However, this is exactly what happened indirectly on the Imola track. Indeed, when George Russell collided with Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes, he almost hit a teammate.
Toto Wolff, the team director, did not hesitate to remind this at the end of the race: “This should never have happened! Valtteri had 30 bad first laps and he should never have been there. But George should never have made that move, considering that the track was drying. This means taking risks and the other car was a Mercedes in front of him. For the development of any driver, for a young driver, you must never lose this global perspective.”
If the Austrian leader reacted in this way, it’s because George Russell started the hostilities by stating on Canal+’s microphone: “A ninth place means nothing to him. It raises the question why he did it for ninth place. Maybe if it was another driver, he wouldn’t have done it. That’s what I thought.”
But Toto Wolff wanted to defend his lead driver as we know that the Briton is aiming for the Finnish driver’s place: “I don’t want him to try to prove things to us because one thing I can say is that I have known Valtteri for five years and he is not trying at all to prove anything to us.”
The FIA stewards have cleared both men of any wrongdoing, determining that Valtteri Bottas did not move his steering wheel to block his rival, who simply lost control of his car while going over the wet grass.
But Toto Wolff sees even further and specifies that this collision could have significant consequences on the team’s season ahead: The situation is not amusing at all, to be honest. It was a big impact. Our car is almost completely destroyed in the context of budget caps. This is clearly not something we needed. It will probably limit the improvements we can make. Especially as they had to deal with damage to the team’s second car after Lewis Hamilton’s off-track excursion. This could have a significant impact on the championship race as the battle with Red Bull looks extremely tight this season.
