It is the 2018/30/09, Formula 1 is in Sochi for race 16 of the season. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) leads in the championship, much more than narrow, on position 2 with quite a distance Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari). At 13:10 it starts, in the beginning it looks like a absolutely normal race… Like quite often Valtteri Bottas drives a super race, behind him his team mate Lewis Hamilton, followed by Sebastian Vettel. But then…
…Hamilton gets troubles with his tires, small blisters, Vettel adhering dangerous close at his rear. The Mercedes box looks for several rounds spellbound at the monitors, in the end the button is pressed, team order for Bottas, he has to let Hamilton pass by… He does what has been ordered at given curve without discussion. Short before the end of the race Bottas asks the box via radio, whether the two of them are allowed to change positions again, the box does not answer. Hamilton passes as winner the checked flag, then the sports director himself contacts Bottas via radio “Valtteri wie need to talk it was a hard decision…”. Hamilton leaves the cockpit with hanging head, searches his team mate, nobody cheers… The reporters interview Bottas, he answers calm and even-tempered, without any negative comment… Hamilton brings Bottas at the award ceremony to himself on the winners podium, you can see at the two of them who the real winner of the race is!
Who follows Formula 1, has for sure seen quite often, that there is being often hot discussed on the radio, orders are not executed or race drivers in interviews not directly but nevertheless very clear… Nothing of all of that Bottas did.
Bottas put his own welfare without hesitating behind the requirements of the teams. He knew for sure, like all the other involved ones, that the distance in the championship between his team mate and Sebastian Vettel is already much bigger than the few points, which can be driven in, provided that all 3 drivers see the checked flag in the expected sequence. Does Lewis Hamilton really need these few points? This will be seen at the end of the season, so far it rather does not look like that…
Solely his asking back to the box, whether the two of them are allowed to change again their positions, shows his doubt about the decision. When he got no answer the order stayed in place, he acted according to that.
We all know this themes out of our work in teams, where it is also required, most of the time with much lower direct consequence for the involved ones, that single people stand back. We also know how team members handle it if reasons for a decision of the (top) management are not understandable. How act team members if they do not get answers for important questions while time passes by? In this case it was even worse, as it rather looks like that the decision was not necessary, maybe even wrong. Who in our teams acts analogue to Valtteri Bottas?
This article shall neither be advertisement for one race driver nor be critic on the management of a race team, but show how lived team spirit looks like. No matter whether leader or team member everybody can learn a lot out of this story.
There are a lot of more details to be told, just watch the recordings in YouTube and let them work on yourself!