Valtteri Bottas has been asking why there were no yellow flags on display before he ran over a large piece of debris situated in the middle of the track on the second lap of Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The large piece of bodywork – which appeared to be an endplate from the front wing of Sebastian Vettel’s car after the Ferrari tangled with Kevin Magnussen’s Haas at the start – caused significant damage to the underfloor of the Mercedes.
Bottas said at the time that he’d had no warning to avoid hitting it, However he did manage to angle his car to avoid cutting the tyres. The impact to the car’s aerodynamic performance would go on to cost him the lead of the race and a likely victory at Imola.
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“I got a warning from my engineers that they could see some gravel, maybe, on lap two in turn seven,” he told Autosport magazine. “They could see some kind of warning somewhere. But there was no yellow flag.
“It was a big piece of debris and I didn’t have enough time to react, to go around it,” he explained. “I only had time to decide how I’m going to hit the debris, and I decided to go straight over instead [either side] with the tyres.
“It would be good to get more of an understanding of why there wasn’t any sign of a big piece of carbon,” he added. “Obviously it’s dangerous if there’s flying things around. It sure didn’t help my race.”