Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has admitted that Ferrari has the edge so far in terms of performance and raw pace in pre-season testing at the Circuit be Barcelona-Catalunya.
“They do seem very strong,” the Finn admitted before the start of the fourth day of the test. "Both short runs and long run."
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc were the fastest drivers at work on Monday and Tuesday. By comparison, Mercedes has been looking strangely lacklustre by their own high standards, and rarely troubling the top - or even upper half - of the daily standings.
There's been speculation that Ferrari has been deliberately running low fuel loads in order to unsettle their rivals with a 'shock and awe' approach.
But Bottas felt that even if that was the case, it made little difference to how impressive Ferrari had been this week.
"No matter which kind of fuel load or engine modes they’re running, whatever you try to correct that for in any case they are quick," he noted. "We feel at this point they’re going to be a bit ahead."
But Ferrari have been super fast out of the gate in the past, only to lose the development race over the course of the ensuing season. Bottas felt that this could be the case again in 2019.
“Obviously it’s impossible to make detailed calculations,” he said. “It is very early days.
“With the new rules it’s going to be a big development race," he added. "[But] we do need - even with this spec of car - to try and make it better and quicker."
Bottas himself is hoping to have a race-winning car to enable him to bounce back from a disappointing winless season last year.
“It was a disappointing season, and it kind of made me angry with myself that in my six years in Formula 1 I haven’t been achieving my target yet,” the 29-year-old conceded.
"For myself, I have a lot to achieve, and I do want to meet my targets. So yes, I do still have a lot to do in Formula 1."
But Bottas said that this season wasn't a question of driving to save his race seat at Brackley.
"I have nothing to prove to anyone else except me," he added. "The team knows exactly what I’m capable of doing, but it’s going to be up to me.
"[It's] for us as a team to work hard to be able to perform on my best level all the time. I know exactly what I can do if I perform on my very best level."
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