Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Red Bull Ring, 2021

Bottas hopeful Mercedes upgrade will put them in pole fight with Red Bull

2021 British Grand Prix

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Valtteri Bottas is hopeful that Mercedes’ package of upgrades for the British Grand Prix will bring its car’s performance closer to Red Bull’s.

Mercedes has not taken a pole position for five races, its last coming at the Spanish Grand Prix. Red Bull has also won all of the last five races.

Mercedes has brought an upgrade package to the British Grand Prix including several new aerodynamic parts. Bottas said should make some difference to the speed deficit but admitted “I can’t put a direct number on it.”

“It’s not that huge,” he said. “It’s nothing small. We’ll see. Obviously tomorrow we’ll see how fast the car is over a single lap.”

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for Mercedes at last year’s British Grand Prix with a margin of 1.022 seconds over Max Verstappen. Bottas said that, realistically, that feat would be irreplaceable even with the upgrade.

“I feel like this year is, for sure, a bit different. With Red Bull, they’ve been quick everywhere, no matter which track so far this year. So we’re definitely not expecting to come in here and suddenly we’re going to be on top.

“But of course, we would like to think that we’re hopefully in better form than we were in Austria and we have some new bits in the car. Hopefully that will bring us closer to Red Bull.”

“I don’t think we’re going to be on pole by one second like last year,” he added. “But I hope we can fight for the pole.”

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Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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4 comments on “Bottas hopeful Mercedes upgrade will put them in pole fight with Red Bull”

  1. Konstantinos
    15th July 2021, 20:42

    This might not be on topic but until Bottas mentioned fighting for pole it hadn’t occurred to me that the new format tested at Silverstone might favour drivers that have pace over multiple laps rather than just the one flying lap as the grid will be decided by a race, granted a significantly shorter one.

    He has been stronger in qualifying and tends to fall backwards a bit during the race so I’d be curious to see where he ends up at the end of the sprint race.

    1. That’s true, and also I would hope that the feat to beat everyone by 1 sec on a single lap is irrepeatable, that would bring us back to merc domination.

  2. No update, small update, complete aero overhaul.
    According to

    According to Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport, Mercedes will bring along an updated front wing, cape, side deflectors, a new floor and a revised diffuser.

    These extensive changes to their aerodynamic package are intended to help close the gap to Red Bull and Max Verstappen in both championships, with the team aiming to find more downforce and grip throughout the length of the car.

  3. That isn’t a Small upgrade but a hug one lets hope Red Bull brough also some little updates.

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