Formula 1: Ferrari helped Mercedes remove Valtteri Bottas’ Wheel Nut

Formula 1: Ferrari helped Mercedes remove Valtteri Bottas’ Wheel Nut

Valtteri Bottas

The Monaco Grand Prix was not like any other Formula 1 race seen in the 2021 calendar. Involving two major highlights in the race, featuring two mega retirements, Valtteri Bottas was the unfortunate recipient of a pitstop blunder by the Mercedes which saw him retiring from the race. And Charles Leclerc not even able to start the race. 

Talking about Valteri Bottas’ incident, during the particular pitstop, his wheel nut refused to come out which resulted in his retirement. In the aftermath of the race, Mercedes technical chief James Allison revealed that the wheel was still lodged in the car and would only be removed at the factory. This happened despite some unusual assistance from arch-rivals Ferrari. 

Ferrari helped Mercedes to remove Valtteri Bottas’ Wheel Nut, but to no avail 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q_SRIRK5DTE

“The gun made the wheel nut completely round. I’ve never seen anything like it. Nothing is left of it. Valtteri told us he could see the metal shavings fly away. The tyre is still on the car. Ferrari also helped us with some heavy equipment,” revealed Mercedes F1 CEO Toto Wolff.  

FS Video

Allison revealed that if the wheel gun doesn’t get connected to the wheel nut properly it can chip away at the driving faces.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nV9rT4jS6os

Allison concluded, “We call it machining the nut. It’s a bit like when you take a Phillips head screwdriver and you don’t get it squarely in the cross of the screwdriver. Given the power of the gun, you can end up with no driving face and you just machine the nut down to a place where there’s nothing left to grab a hold of, and that’s what we had.” 

Also read: “Red flag ruined the chance for pole,” says Max Verstappen after…

Also read: “Anything can happen in Monaco,” says Valtteri Bottas after missing out…