Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo are both still questioning the validity of Austrian Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas’ start.
The Finn was noted after both the Ferrari and Red Bull driver’s radioed in to report what they believe to be a jump start by the Mercedes driver. According to the data, however, Bottas’ reaction to the lights was timed a 0.207s just over the 0.2s threshold the stewards use before penalising on the grounds of anticipation rather than reaction.
“From my point of view, he jumped the start – I was sure that he did,” Vettel commented.
“It looked like it from inside the car, but it’s not for me to judge at the end of the day. [My start] was quite tricky for me to keep standing still [but] it was OK, a bit of wheelspin early on.”
Any decision to penalise Bottas would have given the German the victory at the Red Bull Ring, but he insisted that was not a motive for his ongoing conviction.
“When I say I don’t believe, I don’t believe,” the four-time champion insisted.
“Normally, the reactions are 0.2s for everyone, so I don’t believe everyone was slower today
“So that is why I don’t believe Valtteri was so much quicker. I was a strong believer that he jumped the start, but it turns out he didn’t – that is why I don’t believe it.
“His start was inhuman.”
His former team-mate Ricciardo did seem more content with the stewards decision, recalling his own close call in a lower formula, but did still question whether his start was reactionary or not.
“The main thing it was positive, but the lights were held for a long time, more than normal,” he said of the start procedure.
“There is always a window, but it seemed longer and you are waiting, waiting and he went but the lights went out – I guess he got lucky.
“I did it in F3 once and it was on the edge, you react but at the same point the lights went out. In theory, that it is not a natural reaction.
“But I don’t believe he reacted to the lights. I said it looked like Valtteri jumped – he didn’t jump because it was positive – but for sure he got a bit lucky.”
Unsurprisingly, Bottas didn’t want to query whether his launch was legal or not but did acknowledge there was an element of predicting when the lights would go out.
“I think that was the start of my life, I was really on it today,” he said. “When the car was moving, the lights were off – that is the main thing.
“[With] the start lights, there are different variations since the lights are on and go off, but the variation for a long time has not been massive,” he added.
“So you know more or less the zone when it is going off, so gambling with your reaction and guessing sometimes you get a mega one, sometimes you are a bit late.
“Today was my best reaction for the lights. As long as it (the time between the car moving and lights going out) is positive, it is fine.”