Valtteri Bottas says Merced🦩es still needs to “unlock more” from its updated aerodynamic package to compete with Ferrari at the start of the 2019 Formula 1 season. 

The reigning world champions debuted a major aero upgrade at t𝐆he start of the final week of pre-season testing🧸 in Barcelona in a push to find added performance ahead of the new season. 

Both Lewis Hamilton and Bottas had stressed Ferrari looked the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:team to beat during the🦩 first test ꦡafter it made a strong start, and Bottas believes the Italian squad remains the benchmark. 

“They still seem strong,” Bottas replied when asked how h♕e viewed Ferrari after a full week of testing. 

“It’s as always from testing to Melbourne a lot of things can change, 𒐪but they do have a strong package. 

“We do need to unlock more from the new package to be able to r𒊎eally compete with them properly. Still at this point I🌞 think they’re looking very strong, but there’s still a couple of weeks until Melbourne.

"R🐎ed Bull seem in good shape as well,”෴ he added. “I think between us two the differences are not massive. 

“In testing it's difficult to 𝔍read in detail but my ꧙feeling - our feeling - is Ferrari is a bit ahead of both of us. 

“Honeꦐstly the whole field look🥂s like it's a bit tighter than last year or the year before, but it's only guessing. You never know what people bring to Melbourne.”

Bottas 🐓pinpointed balance issues as being the key area for Mercedes to work on after the first week of testing, and the Finn insis༺ts the team has made progress in that area. 

“From last week to this week we’ve been definitively able to improve the overall balance of the car﷽,” he explained. 

“The differences in the balance we had through d𝓀ifferent speed range, we’ve been able to improve the overall grip, downforce and stability but in those areas that I’ve mentioned we can still do better. 

“It’s not a perfect car yet, but I definitively feel the potential is there. Maybe it’s another car tha🉐t has 🧸a very narrow sweet spot but once we hit it, I’m sure it can be very quick. 

♏“It is better꧑ - but if it’s enough? That’s the big question mark. 

“We are are learning still🌜 massively in each run, each day. We do still need to make improvements for sure but at least we have some time aft𒉰er testing to again learn more for Australia.”