Mercedes has called for changes to Paul Ricard after Valtteri Bottas damaged his Mercedes within minutes of Free Practice 1 beginning for the Formula 1 French Grand Prix.
The Finn ran wide at Turn 2, bouncing wide over the back of the kerbing at the fast right hander.
Upon returning to the garage, the team discovered damage to his front wing, prompting further investigation into the W12.
It prompted a radio exchange between Mercedes’ team manager, Ron Meadows, and FIA race director Michael Masi.
“Those yellow rumble strips on the exit of [Turn] 2 have done an awful lot of damage to our car. They’re just too aggressive,” came the message from Meadows.
“They’re the 60mm ones that are normally have in a lot of places [sic], Ron, and they were actually there in 2019,” was Masi’s response.
“All I’m telling you is, our car’s rooted because he went over them, and we can’t say ‘well you shouldn’t go there’ because that’s 10s of thousands, or 100s of thousands of pounds worth of damage by going three-foot too wide,” Meadows argued.
“It’s a bit more than three-foot, but I’ll have a look, thank you,” Masi said.
Free Practice 1, a 60-minute session, began at 19:30 AEST with a second session to come at 23:00.
