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Valtteri Bottas has admitted the Mercedes Formula 1 team probably should have carried out a shakedown run before testing after its troubled first day.
Bottas lost over three hours of running in the opening session at Sakhir due to a problem on his installation lap that prompted a gearbox change.
Mercedes is the only team that didn’t use F1’s ‘filming day’ allowance to give its 2021 car an on-track run before the test began.
The filming days allow up to 100km of running using ‘demonstration’ spec tyres.
Asked by the official F1TV testing broadcast if Mercedes now regretted not doing a shakedown, Bottas replied: “It’s very easy to say afterwards. Of course now, yes, we would have done it before, but in recent years everything has been pretty bulletproof and certain things have already been run in the dyno.
“So yeah, we would say now [we should have done it] but I’m sure that will be reviewed for next year.”
Team principal Toto Wolff said during the lunchbreak that the problem “came out of nowhere” and was yet to be identified and understood.
Bottas did manage to get five more laps done between the gearbox change being completed and a red flag for Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari stopping on track, but then had to hand the Mercedes over to Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon.
“I and, of course, the whole team were really looking forward to getting on track,” said Bottas.
“On the first lap, the install lap, we realised there was an issue with the gearbox so we obviously had to localise the issue and change the gearbox, which takes quite a bit of time.
“Only at the end we got a few more laps and then it was red-flagged so that was it.
“Six total laps, all with aero rakes on the car, so not too much running today, so not an ideal start.”
Bottas ended up classified slowest for the day, while Hamilton managed 42 laps to finish 10th-fastest.
And despite a much more productive run for the latter, it meant Mercedes ended the day comfortably last in the mileage rankings among the 10 F1 teams.
Wolff had suggested Mercedes would be able to make up for the time lost if “we are able to have a smoother ride from here onwards”, and Bottas agreed that the weekend offered scope to recover.
“The good thing this year is if you miss some running you can actually catch up because with all the mileage reduction and the cost cutting we’re not running a super busy schedule on the other days,” he said.
“So hopefully we can catch up and recover.”
But the suggestion that the test schedule allowed recovery time was challenged by McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl when The Race asked his opinion.
“The programme these three days is fully packed,” said Seidl.
“I would say, the last thing you want is losing track time with an issue, because it will mean that you will lose time to get through your test points.
“If it happens you simply have to deal with it, you have to adapt, you need to reprioritise in order to make sure you still get the maximum in terms of preparation for the first race weekend.
“But it’s more crucial than ever before to have three smooth solid days.”
