Is it done between Bottas and Mercedes? 'Red Bull causes regret at Mercedes'

The opening race of the 2021 season was dominated by the exciting duel between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Behind them, Valtteri Bottas drove in a lonely third place, while Sergio Perez, with problems at the start, eventually managed to drive to P5. Marc Priestley expects the potential threat of Perez to cause headaches at the top of Mercedes.

Asked if Mercedes regret the decision to retain Bottas, rather than George Russell, the former McLaren mechanic had a clear answer. "I think so. They will regret it if Perez is going to be a stronger opponent than Bottas. If it becomes a battle between four drivers or two teams, then Mercedes will be bummed," Priestley explained in his analysis.

Mercedes' dominance seems to have finally been ended by Red Bull Racing in 2021, but still the German team managed to win the race. "Mercedes has always had an advantage in that they had the two fastest cars on the grid. If that is no longer the case because of Red Bull and if Perez is at the same level as Verstappen, then Mercedes will be sorry."

"The fact is they don't have a second driver who is as fast as the drivers at the front. You could get that if you had gone for Russell. The problem you get then is that Russell is hugely ambitious and has dreams beyond Lewis' achievements. He wants to be the next British motorsport legend. So he doesn't like to be held back either."

So, according to Priestley, Mercedes are choosing Bottas to avoid a mutual team fight. He himself has experience of this at McLaren too, when Hamilton and Fernando Alonso drove a team together. "If you get that mutual duel for the championship, then you get problems again with Mercedes, which we also had with Lewis and Alonso. That's what Mercedes are probably avoiding," Priestley concluded.