Valtteri Bottas: A different W10 compared to this winter

Best time of the day's two free practice sessions in Catalonia, Valtteri Bottas confirms its excellent start to the season with the Mercedes W10. The Finn, however, encountered a small technical problem in FP1, which did not unduly disrupt the world championship leader's program.

“During the first session, we had an oil leak on Valtteri's car, recalls Andrew Shovlin, head of engineering at Mercedes. This stopped him before he could do the long stints at the end of the session. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any damage and we were able to return at the start of the second session. »

Bottas especially highlights the change in behavior of his W10 on this track, since the winter tests held in Catalonia between February and March. The consequence in part of the numerous changes made by Mercedes for the return of the F1 in Europe, after a first burst of development.

“It’s always an interesting day when you bring new parts to the car to get a feel for it and see if they provide the performance they should, says Bottas. The car behaved really well today, but is completely different from the winter testing.

It seems that our cornering performance has improved. The balance around a lap is also better, so it seems we have been heading in the right direction since the winter. It's been a good day, but it's only Friday and Ferrari is very close. It feels like we have taken a good step forward, but we have to wait and see what the future holds. »

Also a leap forward underlined by Pierre Gasly, resident of Red Bull Racing, who was able to appreciate, from afar (nearly a second difference in EL2) the increase in performance of the W10.