Valtteri Bottas claims "something fundamentally wrong" with "unpredictable" Mercedes

Bottas, Mercedes, Azerbaijan — Photo: © LAT Images

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Bottas claims "something fundamentally wrong" with "unpredictable" Mercedes

Bottas was a wretched 16th fastest in second practice for the Azerbaijan GP

Sam Hall

Friday 4 June 2021 17:32

Valtteri Bottas was left to declare there to be "something fundamentally wrong" with his Mercedes following a wretched practice outing for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Bottas was left languishing in 16th place on the timesheet at the end of FP2, two seconds behind pacesetter in Red Bull's Sergio Perez and a second behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton whose time was only good enough for 11th.

The Finn was at least able to take some comfort from the long-run pace of the W12, but overall was left shaking his head at the problems with the car.

"There is something fundamentally wrong and we need to figure out what," said Bottas.

"It was very tricky for us and [we are] clearly lacking pace. It feels like it's just overall grip. The balance is not that far off.

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"Okay, the car is maybe a bit unpredictable but it just feels like it is lacking grip and is sliding around so I think it's going to be a long night."

Monaco woes return with a vengeance

At the recent Monaco GP, Mercedes struggled with tyre warm-up, with the problem appearing to have returned in Baku.

Unlike in the Principality, however, Bottas has so far been unable to drive around the issue.

"It was tougher [than Monaco]," added Bottas. "Monaco wasn't easy but at least we were more or less there by the time of qualifying and now we seem quite a bit off.

"It has definitely been a more challenging day than we had anticipated and we need to find out exactly why."