Bottas downplays Mercedes as favourites for French GP
Valtteri Bottas believes Mercedes does not head to Paul Ricard as clear favourites for the French Grand Prix given Ferrari’s recent surge in form in Canada.
The French Grand Prix makes its eagerly-anticipated return to Formula 1 after a 10-year absence, with the event being staged at the Paul Ricard circuit for the first time since 1990.
Mercedes is set to unveil its latest engine upgrade after being forced to delay the debut of the new power unit in Montreal due to a last minute “quality issue”.
Team boss Toto Wolff cited Ferrari’s Canadian victory as a “wake-up call” for the reigning champions, and Bottas claims Mercedes needs to rekindle its winning form from earlier in the season.
“It’s a different grand prix, different kind of tyres and it’s positive we’re going to have the new engine, which we would have needed [in Canada] to win the race,” said Bottas.
“Hopefully we can have some other upgrades as well on the car because every team is developing now race by race and the competition is getting tougher.
“We came [to Canada] knowing that in theory it would be a good track for us. We came with even the old engine thinking there’s a very good chance we were going to be fighting for the win. But it wasn’t the case. It shows how tough the development race is now and we need to keep improving.
“We are definitely not the favourites for the French Grand Prix, that’s a fact.”
Despite the postponement of the updated engine, Bottas says this cannot be pinpointed as the reason for a drop in performance and insists the W09 is partly to blame.
“We can’t just blame the old engine, it’s also the car,” the Finn added.
“We need to improve the car. We have seen that on tracks with many corners like Monaco we were far away from being the best car. So we have work to do in all the areas, definitely.”