Valtteri Bottas says Mercedes must work ඣhard if it is to overturn Ferrari’s pace advantage ahead🦋 of the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend, citing its straight-line speed as being a big concern.

Bottas co🍰mfortably won the oಞpening race of the year in Australia for Mercedes, but the team stru꧅ggled to match Ferra꧋ri for outright pace in Bahrain.

Mercedes was only able to secure a one-two finish after Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel suffered setbacks, leaving it under no illusions about the gap to make up ahead of the ne🎃ꦰxt round in China.

Bottas said Ferrari made a “massive gain” in straight-line speed in Bahrain, and conceded that it left him concerned𝓰 heading to China, where the track has one of the longest straights on the F1 calendar.

“We’ve seen Ferrari was making all the time on ꦍthe straight🐠s, and in China, there’s a longer straight. So we do need to work hard,” Bottas said.

“For sure we ⛄are improving the car all the time and we need to review what we can do for🙈 the straight lines, but it’s going to be tough.

“But like [Bahrain] sh🌊owed, if we keep focusing on ourselves a🍌nd our things, then anything is possible.

“The next two races there are massively long s🤡traights, and I think [in Bahrain] they were making more than 0.4s only in straight lines per lap.

“We can’t find 0.4s like this. We need to maybe find some of it in the co🐎rners and some of it in the straight line, but it’s early on in the s𓄧eason and still a long way to go.

“But at least we know what we can still work on."