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Bottas: No fundamental flaw with Mercedes F1 car
Valtteri Bottas is confident that Mercedes' problems with its Formula 1 car are mostly set-up-related, and that there is not a fundamental flaw with the design of the W08.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Jun 10, 2017, 4:59 PM
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After three consecutive F1 title doubles, Mercedes has been edged out by Ferrari so far this year after struggling to fully get on top of tyres at some tracks.
The problem was especially severe in Monaco, when Lewis Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1 and Bottas was knocked off the podium in the race.
With Mercedes running new suspension components and mechanical updates in Canada this weekend, Bottas reckoned the answer to its situation would come from finding the right way to operate its car – rather than there being the need for a radical overhaul.
"I think definitely most of it is set-up wise," Bottas said when asked by Motorsport.com about the cause of the problems.
"It's about getting the car in a nice stable condition, having it well balanced on the front to rear axle and having it nicely balanced through all the corners. That then makes the tyres work well and last well. A lot of it will come from that.
"I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the car. I think it is still a strong car and aero wise it is good, mechanically it is good. It is just really sensitive and once we get into the right window then we can win again."
Quick response
With Sebastian Vettel having stretched his advantage in the drivers' championship to 25 points, and Ferrari 17 points clear in the constructors' standings, Bottas knows it is important Mercedes finds a quick answer to its problems before the title situation gets worse.
"For sure we need to make the car better, quicker, and obviously there is still a long way to go," he said. "There is no massive panic, but every bad race we have we are losing points against Ferrari, so for sure we need to pick up some pace.
"We need to make the car in general quicker. We need to improve mechanically and aero wise, because even with the engines there is not much difference now between Mercedes and Ferrari so anything is going to help.
"The team is really flat out with everything and we are working on it, so hopefully we will be winning rather soon than later."
New parts
Bottas said Friday in Montreal would be important for Mercedes, as it worked on different solutions to see if it can improve matters.
"It will be how we are setting up the car mechanically – with the suspension. We are going to approach in a little bit of a different way with tests in practice," he said.
"We do have some more small update parts for the weight of the car, and we are getting very close to be optimum, plus some things on the engine side.
"There are some other reliability things and something to do with suspension – small bits here and there, but nothing that stands out by itself. There are plenty of things for us to test on Friday."
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