© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
It seems Mercedes’ decision not to perform the W12 shakedown came back to bite the team when a gearbox problem cut short Valtteri Bottas’ morning testing session.
The problem that was encountered during Bottas’ installation lap required the team to swap the car’s gearbox. It took almost three hours to do so, and the Finn ultimately performed only six laps.
After Mercedes’ 2021 car launch Toto Wolff confirmed the team would not participate in a filming day at Silverstone to perform the W12’s first shakedown. Had the team done the shakedown ahead of pre-season testing, today’s problems might have been discovered earlier. Valtteri Bottas believes the team would have made a different decision had they known what they know now.
“It’s very easy to say afterwards, of course now yes, we would have done it before,” the Finn said after testing.
“But in the recent years everything has been pretty bulletproof, and certain things have already been run on the dyno, etc.
“We can say it now, but I’m sure that will be reviewed for next year.”
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Bottas is of course disappointed with how things went today.
“I was, and of course, the whole team, was really looking forward to getting on track. The first lap, the install lap, we realised there was an issue with the gearbox.
“We obviously had to localise the issue and change the gearbox, which takes quite a bit of time.
“Only at the very end we got a few laps, and then it was red-flagged, and that was it. Six total laps, all with aero rakes on the car, so not much running today. Not an ideal start.”
However the Finn hopes Mercedes can catch up with other teams in the next two days of testing.
“Actually the good thing this year is if you miss some running, you can actually catch up, because of the mileage limitation.
“With all the efficiency and cost cap etc, we’re not running a super busy schedule on the other days, so hopefully we can catch up and recover, if not everything, at least most of it.
“I look forward to two days in the next coming days.”
