Valtteri Bottas expects the Mercedes W11 to go much faster

Without waiting, the Mercedes W11 topped the rankings on the first day of winter testing. Valtteri Bottas in the morning, then Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon, with the key the chronometric reference of the day in 1’16″976 for the British world champion.

If the times of these tests must always be taken with the utmost caution regarding the analyzes to be drawn from them, it is clear that the W11 package offers satisfaction to its drivers, who have not yet exploited the full potential of the one that could to once again be the benchmark of the plateau.

“We were able to do everything, which is just impressive considering the amount of work that goes into our cars, underlines Valtteri Bottas, the first to slip into the seat of the Flèche d’Argent in the morning.

While it was still relatively cold, we mainly focused on aerodynamic testing with racks on the car. Later we worked on the set-up changes, bigger changes than we normally would during a race weekend, when it's more about fine tuning.

During testing you have the opportunity to do this and see how the car reacts to these big changes. I had a very good feeling, the car is good and fast, but I'm sure we can make it much faster.

This has been a very good starting point, but it's only the beginning, so it doesn't mean much. »

An opinion shared by Lewis Hamilton, who wants to approach the results of this first day with caution. “We'll take it one step at a time and get a good feel for the car. We have a lot of data to retrieve and analyze and we need to keep working. »

Words full of wisdom. Those of the champions?