If you weren’t yet convinced by the technological advancements put in place for the 2017 Formula One season, take this ride with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and you will be enlightened.
The new Mercedes-AMG driver ran his equally new W08 racer around the Barcelona track in just 1m19.310 seconds, which not only was the fastest test time of 2017, but was almost a full three seconds quicker than what Lewis Hamilton did last year when he grabbed pole position with a time of 1m22.000 seconds flat.
So yes, the difference between this season and last season should be obvious, especially on paper.
As for the visuals, all we can do so far is go on-board with Bottas as he completes a full lap of the Catalunya track. As you can see, the car does look like it carries more momentum through those high-speed corners.
Bottas also seems to be able to get on the power a bit sooner than what we were used to seeing these past few years, which is also a direct result of the new aero upgrades.