Mercedes left to regret no shakedown plan - Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas doing his installation lap — Photo: © LAT Images

Mercedes

Mercedes left to regret no shakedown plan - Bottas

Mercedes opted against to avoid divulging secrets to rivals

Ian Parkes

Friday 12 March 2021 17:42

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Valtteri Bottas believes Mercedes will be left regretting its decision not to conduct a shakedown of its W12 before pre-season testing.

Mercedes opted against a customary 100-kilometre filming day following the launch of its car, instead deferring to do so until next Tuesday.

It is believed that one of the reasons behind such a decision is the team did not want to reveal the secrets of its floor that aired for the first time at the Bahrain International Circuit.

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But the plan backfired as Bottas was consigned to the garage for over three hours of the morning session as the team opted for a gearbox change after he suffered a gearshift issue on his opening installation lap.

The Finn eventually managed only five further laps and ended the day bottom of the timesheet.

Asked by F1TV's testing channel if Mercedes regretted its decision not to conduct a shakedown, Bottas replied: "It’s very easy to say afterwards.

"Of course now, yes, we would have done it before, but in recent years everything has been pretty bulletproof and certain things have already been run on the dyno.

“So yeah, we would say now. I’m sure that will be reviewed for next year.”

The lack of running has left Mercedes on the backfoot, particularly as this year's pre-season programme runs for just three days.

While Lewis Hamilton managed an additional 42 laps in the afternoon, that was affected by a sandstorm, Mercedes ultimately clocked the fewest kilometres across the day.

“I and, of course, the whole team were really looking forward to getting on track,” said Bottas.

“On the first lap, the install lap, we realised there was an issue with the gearbox so we obviously had to localise the issue and change the gearbox, which takes quite a bit of time.

“Only at the end we got a few more laps and then it was red-flagged so that was it.

“Six total laps, all with aero rakes on the car, so not too much running today, so not an ideal start.”