Valtteri Bottas says he’s hopeful Mercedes can recover the milage it lost on the opening day of pre-season testing in Bahrain after encountering reliability woes.
Bottas was scheduled to drive the W12 in the morning session, but saw his running cut short by a gearbox issue, limiting him to just six laps.
The Finn handed over duties to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon, who faired better managing 42 laps, but struggled in low-grip conditions as the circuit was hit by a sandstorm.
As a result of its setback, Mercedes ended the day as the only team to not complete a full race distance, racking up the lowest number of laps on day one.
Speaking about Mercedes’ difficult start to testing, Bottas said on the Formula 1 World Feed: “I was, and of course, the whole team, was really looking forward to getting on track.
“The first lap, the install lap, we realised there was an issue with the gearbox. We obviously had to localise the issue and change the gearbox, which takes quite a bit of time.
“Only at the very end we got a few laps, and then it was red-flagged, and that was it. Six total laps, all with aero rakes on the car, so not much running today. Not an ideal start.”
Although the gearbox issue has put Mercedes on the back foot with testing reduced to just three days for 2021, Bottas batted away concerns the team would be under pressure to make up the lost time.
“Actually the good thing this year is if you miss some running, you can actually catch up, because of the mileage limitation,” Bottas said.
“With all the efficiency and cost cap etc, we’re not running a super busy schedule on the other days, so hopefully we can catch up and recover, if not everything, at least most of it.
“I look forward to two days in the next coming days.”
Before arriving in Bahrain for pre-season testing, Mercedes was the only team to not hold a shakedown for its 2021 car, opting to save a filming day for next week.
Asked if this decision had backfired, Bottas replied: “It’s very easy to say afterwards, of course now yes, we would have done it before.
“But in the recent years everything has been pretty bulletproof, and certain things have already been run on the dyno, etc.
“We can say it now, but I’m sure that will be reviewed for next year.”
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