Mercedes has already broken curfew!
The Mercedes team used one of its two curfews last night to repair an electrical problem on Valtteri Bottas' single-seater.
The numerous changes made in Barcelona can sometimes cause issues for the teams. We saw yesterday that Ferrari had its share of problems with complications on Sebastian Vettel’s gearbox and Kimi Räikkönen’s engine.
Mercedes does not escape this rule because we learned this morning that the team ignored the curfew imposed on teams, which should normally not intervene on the cars from midnight until 8 am, for this particular day.
The German team therefore used one of the two exceptions allocated to them to address an electrical issue encountered on Valtteri Bottas’s car. An old engine was reinstalled in the car of the latest Russian Grand Prix winner, who should therefore not incur a penalty.
We do not yet know if the Finn will be able to take part in the third practice session this morning and the qualifying session this afternoon.
From our special correspondent in Barcelona
UPDATE: We had an electrical fault on #VB77's Power Unit last night. To fix it, we broke the curfew, and it was resolved.
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) 13 mai 2017
