F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Bottas: Inconsistent 'massive balance issues' impacting Mercedes

Things were far from perfect for Mercedes in the first week of pre-season testing as the team struggled with an inconsistently handling W10 according to Valtteri Bottas.

The German team headed the lap count in Barcelona but relative to its arch-rival Ferrari, Mercedes' performance level was a notch below the Scuderia's.

Both Bottas and Lewis Hamilton kept a low profile all week as the Silver Arrows squad choose to focus on building the baseline of its W10 and iron out its apparent handling inconsistencies as described by Bottas.

"We have work to do, but it’s a good feeling in the sense that it feels like there is potential," said the Finn. "We do need to make improvements.

"We were struggling a bit over the week to find a good balance for all the corners.

"There were some corners that were good, some corners we would have balance issues and other corners we would have massive balance issues."

Mercedes made progress as the week unfolded, but Bottas believes that updates will be required to cure the W10's specific problems.

"We were getting to a much better state at the end of the week, but some of the handling issues can only be sorted with some upgrades. We’re hoping to fix those hopefully soon."

©Mercedes

On Thursday, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc expressed his belief that his team's main rivals were perhaps sandbagging at the Circuit de Catalunya this week.

But Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insisted that Ferrari was likely the one playing its cards close to its chest.

"I think in Barcelona [week] 1 what we have seen is that Ferrari is ahead of the pack," said the Austrian. "The car looks fast and is fast on lap times.

"I think that yesterday [Wednesday] they could probably have gone 1.5 seconds faster if they wanted to, and that is the fastest car we have seen in testing so far.

"Then it is pretty much everybody bunched up, which is pretty exciting between all the other teams.

"Now it is about seeing what happens in Barcelona [week] 2," he added.

"I have a feeling everybody will bring stuff to the car and then again in Melbourne. So probably only then will you be able to judge the competitive balance and not before."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.

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