Bottas claims Mercedes will be unaffected by FIA ban on qualifying engine modes

Valtteri Bottas is confident Mercedes will not be hindered by the incoming FIA ban on qualifying engine modes.

Optimistic Mercedes will remain the team to beat once the ban on qualifying engine modes is introduced, a ban reports suggest will now be implemented one week later than planned at Monza rather than the Belgium Grand Prix.

However, his optimism was tinged with a word of caution as Mercedes has no idea what modes other engine manufacturers are currently running.

Bottas said: “It’s impossible to know with other engine manufacturers how much they are going to gain when they put it all out in qualifying and if we are actually getting any more or not.

“We are not panicking about it. If that regulation, rule comes then it is the same for everyone."

While Bottas expects to be unaffected by the change himself, the Finn warned the decision could lead to some less interesting races - engine modes being one of the most commonly used tools by drivers to both overtake and defend.

He added: “But when I heard about it for the first time, the first thing that came to my mind was that in races, because every team has different modes, how much they want to risk in terms of wearing the engine, and sometimes that’s when they can, and also the same for us, we can save the engine if we have margin.

“Also, in terms of strategic things in the race for drivers, many times we are using different kinds of modes, whether we are defending, attacking, so from my side it feels like if it’s the same engine mode for everyone all through the race, I think there could be less overtaking because everyone is running in the same modes, instead of playing with them and trying to maximise every situation, with some guys using more power, some guys less.

“In the end, it is less things for us to do while driving but obviously it is not up to us, but we take it if it comes.”

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