Valtteri Bottas has explained Mercedes’ upgrades for the second half of the season.
Mercedes leads Red Bull by 12 points as the first half of the season is over and done with. However, it is by no means a safe lead, and Red Bull will be gunning for the Silver Arrows when the season resumes.
Both constructors will be looking to push each other to the limit. This includes developing and upgrading their cars. As such, Bottas has explained Mercedes’ upgrades for the second half of the season.
Speaking to Jeff Yeung of HyperBeast , Bottas said “The fact is that we’re not developing the current car anymore at the factory.
“But there are still improvements to come, because obviously once you discover something in the wind tunnel, there’s a delay before you actually get the parts onto the track. So it doesn’t matter like this.”
“We had some new parts in Silverstone, and I hope that we’re going to have some more later on, but at some point that will have to stop, because obviously next year there’s a big regulation change and the team needs to balance out the car’s performance this year versus next year,” the Finn concluded.
Opportunities
Red Bull will be rubbing their hands with glee after listening to Bottas say Mercedes is no longer developing their car for this season after the Hungarian GP. They may already be looking at next season and the car they want for 2022, so Red Bull will be looking at upgrading theirs to gain the advantage this season.
With new regulations set to be enforced in F1 next year, teams will have to develop their cars and resources accordingly. Hence, teams like Mercedes will have one eye on the 2022 season, and how they would want to make a car that would help Lewis Hamilton and his teammate be faster than the rest of the grid.
Read more: Max Verstappen ridicules Valtteri Bottas’ driving ability – “Takes out half the field”