Mercedes working to avoid Bottas getting numbness

Mercedes’ technical chief James Allison says the squad is working on solutions to avoid Valtteri Bottas suffering numbness in his left leg.

Bottas radioed Mercedes during the Belgian Grand Prix to inform them of the sensation but went on to maintain second, finishing behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

After the race he commented that “it [numbness] can lead to mistakes but there were no big mistakes apart from one lock-up that I can recall.”

Allison explained that it is a situation that has afflicted Bottas for several years and that Mercedes is still trying to rectify the predicament.

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“It’s actually something which we have struggled with not just for Spa but for a long time with Valtteri, which is getting him fully, fully comfortable in the car,” said Allison.

“And he’s had to endure seasons with us where he feels that difficulty in his leg, caused by the seat not being exactly to his liking and where it just cuts off a bit of blood flow and he gets a numb leg as a consequence.

“It’s not sufficiently debilitating to actually have a big impact on his performance, but it is nevertheless something that we would absolutely like to get right.

“We have tried a number of variations of seat and pedal, but we have got more to do.

“We want to get him so that he is utterly, utterly comfortable under all conditions, all tracks, all the way through the season but we haven’t yet found that magic combination and we will keep working until we do.”