Bottas: 'We're not panicking because of a ban on the qualification mode'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
With effect from the Belgian Grand Prix, the use of qualifying mode is prohibited as an attempt to make things a little more exciting. Mercedes, which has been using this mode successfully for a long time, is one of the teams that will immediately notice the effect of this. Everyone has his own opinion about it, as does Valtteri Bottas, but he is not really worried.
Advantage per team difficult to estimate
"We are not panicking about it," says the Finn at Sky Sports F1. He also states that the specific profit per engine is very difficult to estimate, because he only knows that from Mercedes itself. "For me it's impossible to say how much other engine manufacturers are gaining when they are kind of using full beans."
"Of course, you can't always use the full power because then it puts the engine to the risk. So I have no idea in detail of the others, so I don't know if we are losing compared to others or if it's the same, but obviously we take it if that's the regulation."
Since it is unclear to what extent other teams are using this and what it will bring them, it is difficult to estimate where everyone will be right now. The advantage of Mercedes is that the car is by definition very good, which makes it seem as if they can give up that small lead they normally have.
That in theory at least, in practice we will see it during qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps.