Bottas believes that Mercedes need to 'unlock' their car to beat Ferrari

Valtteri Bottas has been brutally honest with his assessment of where his team are at the moment. The Finn recognises that Mercedes are behind Ferrari and that they need to 'unlock' their car if they are to be competitive. 

“It is better, but if it’s enough [to match Ferrari], that is the big question mark," he told Motorsport.com

“I definitely feel improvements since last week with the stability of the car and with the overall downforce of the car, but we feel that we haven’t unlocked everything that there is to unlock.

“We do still need to make improvements for sure but at least we have some time after testing to again learn more for Australia.”

When speaking about Ferrari Bottas said, “They still seem strong. Obviously as always from testing to Melbourne, a lot of things can change but they do have a strong package,”

“I still think we do need to unlock more from the new package to be able to really compete with them properly. We’ve been able to improve overall grip, downforce and stability, but all those areas, we can still do better.

“It’s not the perfect car yet. Definitely, we feel the potential is there. Maybe it’s another car that has quite a small sweet spot, but once you hit it, it can be very quick."