F1, Hungarian GP: ‘small mistakes’ worth almost 5 million dollars. The estimated damages are worth almost 5 million dollars.

Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto certainly did not like what happened in the start of the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring track. Both Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll made misjudgments when braking on the wet surface that turned the Hungarian circuit into a bowling alley to quote Charles Leclerc, taken out by the Canadian driver of Aston Martin. The ‘pins’ knocked out by Valtteri Bottas, on the other hand, were two – Lando Norris and Sergio Perez – with Max Verstappen forced to run “with half a car”.

Mattia Binotto proposed that the damages related to these accidents be covered by whoever is responsible for the accident, also because under the budget cap every dollar makes a difference. At Ferrari, for example, Lance Stroll’s mistake will force the Maranello team to change the power unit on Charles Leclerc’s SF21 car, a serious blow both in terms of costs and potential penalties to be served sooner or later on the starting grid in the 2021 Formula 1 season.

“It was a small mistake” were the words of Toto Wolff following what happened with Valtteri Bottas, who was the first to contribute to the unfortunate outcome of Turn 1 after the start. A “small mistake” which, added to that of Lance Stroll, according to estimates published on Reddit by the user ‘u / basspro24chevy’, caused 4,800,000 dollars in damages, over 4 million euros.