Mercedes 'definitely' need an engine upgrade, says Bottas

Martin Macdonald
Wednesday 13 June 2018 09:29

Valtteri Bottas has admitted that Mercedes "definitely" need to upgrade their engine if they are to compete for victories in upcoming Grand Prix races, following a disappointing weekend for the Silver Arrows in Canada in which the Finn failed to get close to Sebastian Vettel in P1.

Not only did Bottas not provide a threat to Vettel, who won from pole to flag, but it was also a forgettable race for Lewis Hamilton who ended up finishing in fifth - surrendering the championship lead to the Ferrari driver in the process.

Mercedes were expected to introduce their second power unit of the season in Canada last weekend along with their rivals, but the change was postponed due to a "quality issue".

It is Bottas' opinion that the team needs to make the switch as soon as possible.

“We need it definitely,” Bottas said.

“[Sunday] showed that we are not quick enough. We definitely need it and we are going to get for the next race so that’s good.”

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He believes that Ferrari simply had too much pace and power from pole position in Montreal, and Mercedes would only have had a real chance of winning if they had claimed pole from qualifying.

“Since lap one really [Ferrari] seemed to be a bit quicker all the time and they could control the race and were really pushing on it and we got into a little bit of trouble in the end, running out of fuel; that’s why Max got close in the end," the Finn continued.

“I think this was the maximum. [Qualifying] was about hundredths of a second, so maybe from pole it could have been different, but from P2 we maxed out. I’m happy for that but I’m not happy that we were behind.”

Mercedes are expected to make the change to their second engine of the season before the French Grand Prix next weekend.