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Bottas: Mercedes are not favourites

Bottas: "Mercedes are not favourites"

18-06-2018 12:46
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Bobby Vincent

Valtteri Bottas says that Mercedes cannot be deemed as favourites ahead of the returning French GP.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described the last race in Canada as a “wake-up” call for the German car manufacturer.

Sebastian Vettel’s win ensured that the German took over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ standings.

Mercedes had to delay their planned engine upgrade and it didn’t go to plan for the defending world champions.

Bottas claims that Mercedes’ potential engine upgrade will not be enough and that they have to raise their game.

“It’s a different grand prix, different kind of tyres and it’s positive we’re going to have the new engine, which we would have needed (in Canada) to win the race,” said Bottas.

“Hopefully we can have some other upgrades as well on the car because every team is developing now race by race and the competition is getting tougher.

“We came (to Canada) knowing that in theory it would be a good track for us.

“We came with even the old engine thinking there’s a very good chance we were going to be fighting for the win.

“But it wasn’t the case and it shows how tough the development race is now and we need to keep improving.

“We are definitely not the favourites for the French GP, that’s a fact.”