Major blow for Valtteri Bottas in the wake of Sauber’s extensive Las Vegas upgrade

Michelle Foster
Sauber introduced a new diffuser in Las Vegas

Sauber introduced a new diffuser in Las Vegas

Valtteri Bottas’ chances of scoring his first points of the season in Las Vegas were dealt a blow on Thursday night with news he’s facing a five-place grid penalty.

Neither the Finn nor his team-mate Zhou Guanyu have managed to score a single point this season, Sauber lagging down in 10th place in the Constructors’ Championship.

FIA confirm Valtteri Bottas’ five-place grid penalty

News that the team had upgraded the car ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend, introducing a new floor as well as diffuser, was somewhat dampened by confirmation of a five-place grid penalty.

Bottas has been hit with a five-place grid drop after the team exceeded the limit of power unit components by introducing a new energy store.

Each driver is permitted two energy stores per season, but this will be the Finn’s fourth which is a breach of the FIA Sporting Regulations.

“The penalty is imposed in accordance with Article 28.3,” read the FIA statement.

“The use of each additional element in this case carries a 5 grid place penalty Competitors are reminded that they have the right to appeal certain decisions of the Stewards, in accordance with Article 15 of the FIA International Sporting Code and Chapter 4 of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules, within the applicable time limits.”

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Sauber introduce new floor in Las Vegas

Bottas’ penalty comes as Sauber introduced a new floor to the C44, the team’s Racing Director Xevi Pujolar telling the media including PlanetF1.com the reasoning behind the late-season upgrade.

“If you have got bits that you can add on the current floor, and that gives you a bit of performance when everything is so close, it’s still worth it, even if it’s 50 milliseconds, 18 seconds, everything counts,” he said.

“But it needs to work all together, then you bring it at once.

“We have to see now on the floor, if that floor is the step that we expect then that should be going towards ’25. I mean, even if we are still P10, the delta is there.

“We say every race they are quite small. It’s not like we are two seconds off, it’s a few tenths.

“As soon as you get a package and it’s working, you can see some teams sometimes bring a package and it’s not working, you do step back. So if that works, then we’ll be closer.

“How close we need to see also, everyone is developing so what to see where we stand relative to the competition. But that should be at least for us to understand that’s the right direction and then keep working on that one for ’25.”

Bottas was 16th fastest in FP1 in Sin City, 2.764s down on the pace set by Lewis Hamilton. Zhou was a further six-tenths behind his team-mate.

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