Mercedes had programmed a secret message on Bottas’ steering wheel
This Sunday in Abu Dhabi was Valtteri Bottas' last Grand Prix with Mercedes after 5 seasons. The race engineers of the Finnish driver set up a clever little program to trigger a secret message at the end of the Grand Prix.
At the end of the race, the drivers’ engineers request over the radio to implement certain procedures to prevent technical issues or safeguard certain components, notably the engine.
At the very end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, while Valtteri Bottas is on the radio with his engineer, he asks him to put mode 77 on his single-seater, which doesn’t usually happen – 77 being the number chosen by Bottas to compete in F1.
Once this mode is activated, a small secret message appears on a blue background: « Thank you Valtteri ».
This message written in Finnish simply “thanks” the Mercedes driver for his years with the German team: “Thank you Valtteri”.
