'Easy to say' Mercedes should have shook down 2021 F1 car - Bottas

Valtteri Bottas says Mercedes will review its decision not to shakedown its new 2021 Formula 1 car after reliability issues curtailed its running on the opening day of pre-season testing.

Bottas lost over three hours of running on the first day of testing in Bahrain after Mercedes identified a gear shift issue forcing it into a gearbox change.

The Finn was only able to complete six laps in total before handing over to teammate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon session.

Mercedes is the only team that didn’t give its new 2021 challenger a runout prior to the test in Bahrain.

All F1 teams are allowed to do 100km of running on demonstration Pirelli tyres but Mercedes has scheduled its 'filming day' for after the test.

Reflecting on the team’s decision not to shakedown the W12, Bottas said: “It’s very easy to say it afterwards. Of course, now, yes, we would have done it before, but in recent years everything has been pretty much bulletproof and certain things have already been run in the dyno, etc. Yes, we can say that now and I’m sure it will be reviewed for next year.”

Mercedes completed just 48 laps in total, while likely title rivals Red Bull completed 139 in the hands of Max Verstappen.

Looking ahead to the remaining two days of the test, Bottas believes it will be easy for the team to catch up on the running it has lost.

“I think the good thing this year is that if you miss some running, you can actually catch up, because of the mileage limitation and with all the efficiency, cost cap, etc., we’re not running super-busy schedules on the other days, so, hopefully, we can catch up and recover,” Bottas added.

“If not everything, a good chunk of it and I’m looking forward to two good days in the next couple of days.”