Valtteri Bottas revealed a gearbox issue was behind his retirement at Silverstone on Sunday afternoon.

It was an afternoon to forget for Alfa Romeo as they suffered a double retirement, when they could well have earned a double points finish on a different day.

Instead, though, Zhou Guanyu was involved in a massive shunt at the start of the race and Bottas would then have to bow out early thanks to an issue with his gearbox.

Speaking to the press here at Silverstone after his retirement, he explained:

"I had a gearbox issue. I had a couple of downgraded upshifts and then they called me in to prevent further damage."

Of course, his retirement was far less violent than that of his team-mate and, thankfully, Zhou was able to survive the shunt without any serious injury.

Indeed, it was testament to the crash structure of the car that he was protected but he did find himself trapped between the tyre barriers and the fence in front of spectators, which is something Bottas thinks needs looking at:

"I saw him upside down in turn one and then I was waiting for the call that he was fine which was luckily pretty quick.

"Initially I thought it might be a bit of a safety thing where there's a bit of movement but obviously it shouldn't happen because he was stuck there, if there was a fire it would have been nasty."

Bottas raises a good point, and it may well be something that is looked at on the back of a crash that could have been so much worse.