Bottas, Mercedes target fix for “really messy” car balance

Valtteri Bottas says Mercedes has some car balance issues to address despite setting the pace for Formula 1’s French Grand Prix during Friday practice.

Bottas trailed Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in opening practice but turned the tables on the championship leader in FP2, as he posted a 1m30.937s to end up 0.424s clear at the head of the pack.

“It was not easy in the beginning; everyone struggled in the morning because the track was much more slippery than usual,” Bottas said.

“But the track ramped up quickly, I could feel big gains on a lap-by-lap basis, especially in the corners.

“The more the track improved, the better the balance of the car felt. Despite the balance issues, the car was quick out of the box which is always a good start.

“We've made good changes between the sessions and I felt much more comfortable in FP2, which is why the lap time was better. It's really warm out there, and it will only get warmer, so tyres are going to be on the limit, especially on Sunday.

“We still struggle with the balance over the course of the entire lap, so we'll have a good look at the data tonight to see what we can improve for tomorrow.”

Mercedes chief race engineer Andrew Shovlin echoed Bottas’ balance concerns and also explained how a misfire issue disrupted Hamilton’s FP2 session.

“It's been an interesting day from the point of view of the tyres and the car performance,” he said.

“All the cornering regions of the circuit have been recently resurfaced and it was clear that the Soft tyre was suffering quite badly on the new tarmac.

“Our pace looked pretty good, but the balance was really messy due to poor grip from the rear tyres. We made some changes over the break to help calm the car down and both drivers felt it was better in the afternoon.

“Valtteri had a clean session, his pace on low fuel was good and the long run was consistent. Lewis was finding it a bit harder to get the balance of the car in the right place and he made a mistake on his Soft tyre run.

“We would have continued on that tyre, but we detected a misfire shortly after and brought the car in to investigate. We were able to get back out to do some long run work after fixing the issue and the car looked to be working well for Lewis on race fuel.

“We have a bit of work to do tonight to see if we can further improve the rear end, but we seem to have a decent car to work with. So, overall we are quite happy.”