Williams could run the opening race of the season with just one car.
Valtteri Bottas was complaining of back pain during Q2. The team checked out the seat and its fittings but could find nothing irregular. Despite this, the Finnish driver was set to qualify third but for a small mistake at the final turn where he ran wide onto the bumpy grass which both cost him time and exacerbated the pain in his back.
As a precaution, Bottas was taken to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital for a check up. precaution.
“Unfortunately towards the end of Q2 I started to feel a pain in my back,” Bottas revealed.
“Under the circumstances I’m happy with sixth place, but as Felipe proved, this is not a true indication of our pace.
“Given the back complaint I had during the session, the team and I felt it sensible to get me checked out at the local hospital and we await their diagnosis.”
Article 19.1 a) of the sporting regulations states, “During a season each team will be permitted to use four drivers. Changes may be made at any time before the start of the qualifying practice session provided any change proposed after 16.00 on the day of scrutineering receives the consent of the stewards”.
Therefore, should Valtteri is unfit to race tomorrow and despite having a super license, Suzie Wolff will not be the first woman to drive in a Championship Formula One race since Lella Lombardi.
Silly question, but shouldn’t Suzie Wolff take the seat then?
You have been found guilty of not reading the article. The answer to your question is in the piece.
LOL 😀
Double Oops 😳
pssst: the Title says WillAIMs not Williams!
Will.I.Am’s
Will aims to be first 😂
That’s making a bit of a presumption to have the title as “WILLAIMS DOWN TO ONE CAR FOR OPENING RACE OF THE SEASON” when the article is about how Williams ‘could’ be down to one car?
Agreed. A question mark is needed at this point.
He did appear to have some discomfort walking back from the car
rules are rules, but this is a squandered brilliant opportunity to generate massive interest and viewership.
but also why the hell have third drivers at all? terrible rule.
A third driver can take over at any time UNTIL qualifying. In F1 the DRIVER qualifies no matter what car. So if you don’t participate in qualifying you can’t race.
It’s different in other series’ like NASCAR where the CAR qualifies. One guy can qualify the car someone else take over.
Logical that another driver can’t take the original drivers place after qualy, but allowing them to start at the back wouldn’t be too much of an issue. The main problem would be that said driver wouldn’t have had any seat time other before the start of the race.
I’d say there is scope here for forcing the team to run their third driver in either FP1 or FP2, although of course this sort of thing is very unlikely to happen.