Bottas: We need to fix T-wing breakages
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Valtteri Bottas says Mercedes needs to find a way to ensure its T-wings are safe after the Finn suffered a second breakage in as many events during FP2 for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Finn lost time in FP2 when the aerodynamic device broke free and struck the following Red Bull of Max Verstappen, an incident that drew the ire of Christian Horner - a long-standing critic of the wing - and prompted further calls for a ban.
Coming after a similar issue afflicted Bottas' Mercedes during third free practice for the Chinese Grand Prix, Bottas admits the fragility of the wing is a concern even if the minimal performance gains means he is particularly keen for the issue to be resolved.
"It has flown a couple of times now and we're trying to find out why. It's not a massive thing in terms of performance, it's a small thing, but small things are going to count this year, so we need to fix it.
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"For sure is not good there are things flying around, but we're trying to fix it and we managed to do a modification last time. Then, after that it was fine in China, but here it's a different track, we are facing new issues, but I'm sure we can fix it here and we can make it safe."
Ending the day second fastest behind Sebastian Vettel but showing stronger race pace, Bottas expects performance to be close come qualifying and the race.
"We tried to learn as much as we could in FP1 give the higher temperatures. Obviously the car needs to be set-up only for the evening, cooler sessions, but we tried to do some kind of tests anyway. The car felt better in FP2 and it's looking very close again. But it was a good start today."
