- Williams
Mercedes could be hurt by FRIC ban - Bottas
Valtteri Bottas has suggested Mercedes could be the team most affected by any ban on Front and Rear Interconnected (FRIC) suspension and is certain it will not have any impact on Williams.
An FIA technical directive was sent to the teams following the British Grand Prix warning that cars running such systems from Germany onwards would be reported to the stewards. FRIC systems link the front and rear suspension to help control the pitch of the car under braking and maintain its ride height for aerodynamic advantage, and is believed to be one of the strenghts of the dominant Mercedes car.
When put on the spot about whether "the team in front" could be especially affected, Bottas laughed and said: "Yes! Maybe some teams could be more affected than us, I would say."
But Bottas does not think it will necessarily lead to a massive change in the pecking order.
"For some teams yes [it is an issue] but not for some others. We will see, I don't really know what is going to happen, we will see. Whatever the decision is we will be OK with it, I don't think it's going to be the key for the season or anything like that."
Though he has finished third and second in the last two races, Bottas does not think Williams is as close to challenging Mercedes for outright victories as recent results suggest.
"It's tough to say, Mercedes still has so much more pace than us. I think Austria was a different thing but for example at Silverstone, no matter what we would have done with strategy, second place was the absolute maximum so we would also need some luck to be ahead of them. This season it's going to be difficult but you never know."
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