15/05/2019
NEWS STORY
Speaking in the wake of a race that was lost in the opening few seconds as the cars pulled away from the line, pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas cited a mysterious clutch issue.
"I lost it at the start," said the Finn. "There was some strange behaviour on the clutch. It was biting, releasing, biting, releasing, which I never felt before, so I lost it there.
"It was the first time I've felt anything like that," he added, "like a vibration in the clutch and that's why the initial getaway was very poor. It was kind of biting and releasing in a very quick frequency. So it's really annoying. All the hard work this weekend for me went down the depths but obviously I'm not blaming any individual in the team, and as we are a strong team, we are going to investigate how it happened and how we can avoid it ever happening again in the future.
"Obviously for me as a person, it is annoying to have it this way but that's how it goes," he concluded.
However, in the latest edition of its Pure Pitwall, Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin and sporting director, Ron Meadows said the Finn's poor getaway was more about grip.
"We believe it was just a lack of grip on the pole position side," said Meadows. "If you look at the support races, more often that not the second position guy or even third or fourth had a better start than the pole guy."
"That's one of the elements," added Shovlin. "You get a bit of wheelspin and then the wheels are slipping, the clutch is slipping, there's a bit of an interaction.
"We're going to get all the bits and have a good look at them anyway this week to understand it," he added. "At the moment we think the number one issue is with the grip and not an issue with the car."