Bottas doubts Red Bull resurgence

Valtteri Bottas believes Red Bull's performance in the Monaco Grand Prix was a one-off rather than a sign it has joined the battle at the front of the grid.

Red Bull has struggled for pace so far in 2017, with a low-drag concept hurting its ability to get temperature in its tires. While a major upgrade in Spain saw the team close the gap in qualifying, it was still a long way off in the race, but both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo battled with Bottas on outright pace in Monaco as the Australian secured a podium.

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While Bottas was under pressure from both Red Bulls throughout the race in Monte Carlo, he doesn't expect to see a similar situation in the upcoming races.

"I reckon, for now, it's just Monaco," Bottas said. "That's my feeling because it's a unique track. It's all about downforce and mechanical grip, having a good car over the bumps and off camber corners, plus changes of direction.

"Canada is very different; it's full of medium speed corners and chicanes. I think they'll be up there sooner or later, they're a strong team and they can make really strong cars, so we shouldn't really underestimate them. But I reckon Canada is going to be, maybe, a bit more tricky for them."

While Red Bull was struggling to get the most out of its tires in the early races of the season, Bottas says it is a problem Mercedes also has been faced with compared to championship leader Ferrari.

"We are struggling to get the car nicely balanced, especially [in Monaco] in the very slow corners. We are struggling with rear stability and when the rear is not stable, you're not putting energy through to the front tires either, because the fronts are not – they're not sliding at all, but when the rears are stable the front are understeering a bit and that puts more temperature on the front tires.

"When you can carry more speed through the corners you just gain energy and temperature in the tires. For some reason Ferrari always seems to have both axles working, while for us they're not really coming together, they're never at the same time in the correct window and they're doing a better job at that, at the moment."