Valtteri Bottas admits he and Williams need to work on improving the balance of his FW38, as the Finn had to battle both oversteer and understeer during Friday practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.
In a disjointed opening day that saw several Virtual Safety Car periods and an afternoon downpour wash the Red Bull Ring, Bottas featured in the top 10 in both sessions, albeit some way behind pace setter Nico Rosberg.
“For sure it was a tricky practice day,” the Williams driver said. “But we learned that we have quite a bit of work to do with the car balance.
“There were a couple of corners, in sector two, where I struggled with a lot of understeer. In the rest of the corners I had oversteer, so it was quite tricky. We need to have a good look overnight about what we can do to improve the car.
“I’m sure we still have plenty of tools to adjust the car and make it quicker.”
Wet-weather conditions were not Williams’ strongest suit in recent years, with the Grove-based outfit often struggling in the rain. Ask to compare with this season, Bottas says he has noticed some improvements in that realm.
“I think it could have been worse, because I remember last year, when we had the rain here in practice, the car was terrible and we were the slowest of all. Today it was a little bit better.”
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