Bottas: Whoever leads controls the race

Valtteri Bottas believes that despite regulation changes aimed at making following another car easier, track position is still king in Formula 1.

The Finn lost the lead of the Chinese Grand Prix having qualified on pole position after getting wheelspin on a painted white line. It allowed Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to gain a lead that the 29-year-old was unable to fight and contest.

Ahead of the race around the Baku City street circuit, Bottas revealed that despite changes made to cars, following another is still difficult this season.

"Even being three or four seconds behind you're sliding more, which overheats the tyres more, and then it's more difficult," he explained in a preview of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

"But that's how F1 has been for a long time," he shrugged. "Whoever is in the lead can control it a little bit and always has it easier in a way.

"Last year you could feel a bit more turbulence, a bit more movement in the car. It is a bit more stable, but you lose a bit of grip and downforce.

Now the cars have more downforce than they did last year. Obviously there's no air to make the wings work, you lose grip, that's how it goes.

"It's a good thing that the car's not doing anything funny when you're following. It's just a general loss of downforce.

"The more downforce you have, the more percentage of downforce you lose when you're behind another car.

"I haven't been in the other cars so I don't know how it feels. But for sure it feels like we have a good level of downforce, because we've been really strong in the corners."