Valtteri Bottas offers thoughts on Mercedes' current struggles

Valtteri Bottas has said that it is surprising to see Mercedes struggling as much as they are at the moment.

The Silver Arrows are looking short of the pace they need to battle for the championship at the moment, with Ferrari and Red Bull leading the way right now.

Indeed, Alfa Romeo and Haas look more like Mercedes’ rivals, as well as the likes of Alpine, and that just shows the kind of shake-up we have seen thanks to the new regulations in the sport.

Bottas, of course, is one man to be benefitting from that with him scoring points on his debut race in Bahrain for the team and also challenging again inside the top 10 before his car gave up on him due to overheating issues.

Clearly, the switch has worked out nicely for him and he admits it is strange seeing a team that he knows so well in Mercedes struggling.

“It’s weird to see.

“I would guess [Lewis] had some kind of issue, I don’t know.

“It is surprising to see them struggling, but it’s also nice to be able to battle with them.”

Over the weekend in Saudi Arabia, we saw Lewis Hamilton only managing to qualify 16th before finishing 10th, whilst George Russell had a bit of a better time of it as he finished in 5th after lining up 6th on the grid.

Clearly, though, it is a drop-off from what we have seen for so long from Mercedes and the Silver Arrows will be eager to solve their issues as quickly as possible, which appear to stem around porpoising in the main.