Valtteri Bottas’ F1 Azerbaijan GP ended against the barrier at Turn 15 on the final lap. The Cadillac driver started 19th on Saturday and ran near the back of the field. Yellow flags then appeared just as George Russell held off Max Verstappen by 0.196 seconds. Bottas still finished 16th in the classification because he completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Afterwards, Bottas explained what he thought went wrong, the missing pace and a possible harvesting fault.
Bottas explains the Turn 15 crash at the F1 Azerbaijan GP
Bottas traced the problem back to an earlier mistake on that same lap. He linked the lock-up at Turn 1 to the trouble that followed at Turn 15. He had gone down the run-off at the first corner and had to turn it around to rejoin the circuit.
“First of all, the same lap I had a lock-up into Turn 1, I went wide. Then, I think the systems got a bit confused because of the extra distance. I had a huge super clip into 15, and then when I hit the brakes, only the front brakes would work. Almost like I wasn’t harvesting anymore with the rears. So, something a bit confusing there.”
The 2026 rear brakes work closely with energy harvesting. Bottas, therefore, suspects that a confused system left him with only the front brakes at the worst possible moment of the F1 Azerbaijan GP.
His Cadillac had no pace before the crash
Bottas struggled for speed long before the final lap. He said his only real fight came against Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Meanwhile, his teammate Sergio Peréz finished P14 and was considerably faster all through the race and weekend itself.
That gap defined Bottas’ 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP.
“Just, honestly, no pace at all. I could only fight with Fernando [Alonso], for sure we lost some time there. But, otherwise, just pretty far off. So, lots of things to look into from this weekend.”
Bottas rules out lift and coast as the cause
Cadillac also asked Bottas to lift and coast during the race, so the obvious question was whether that explained the incident. Bottas confirmed the request but played down its severity.
“Yes, that is true. We had to do some lift and coast. Nothing as extreme as before. But then in the end, we could drop the lift and coast at the end. So, I think it’s just more like being cautious.”
However, Bottas did not think caution explained the crash. Instead, he pointed to a different fault. “No, I don’t think so. I think there is something else. We will have a look. Yes, we need to have a look at what happened. But it was an odd one. Because it felt like I lost the rear brakes. It felt like I lost the rear harvesting.”
Baku hid Cadillac’s weaknesses
Bottas looked good in practice at the F1 Azerbaijan GP, so the natural question was whether he found any positives about Cadillac’s speed. He pointed to the layout of the circuit as a key factor.
“Yes, I think it’s… Well, there are not many high-speed corners. It doesn’t highlight our weaknesses that much.”
Bottas’ answers point to two separate problems: a car without pace and a possible fault in its braking and harvesting systems. Cadillac now has to work out how much each one contributed.
The stewards took no further action against Bottas for staying near his stricken car, so the focus shifts to the data. Until that analysis arrives, Bottas carries the unanswered questions from the F1 Azerbaijan GP into Malaysia.
