“He has Lewis’ chassis”– Nico Rosberg answers how Valtteri Bottas is suddenly so fast in France

“He has Lewis’ chassis”–Nico Rosberg indicates Valtteri Bottas’ powerful performance on Friday because of the chassis swap.

Valtteri Bottas had a good opening to his weekend on Friday, and it even continued in the Fp3 on Saturday. Signalling that the Finn could be a threat to this Sunday’s race.

But his predecessor– Nico Rosberg, has already diagnosed the sudden rise in Bottas’ performance in France, and he has claimed that the chassis swap is responsible for it.

“Maybe it’s down to the swapping of the chassis. Because he has Lewis’ chassis here for this weekend, so maybe as a result of that he has found a lot of form,” said Rosberg.

A good performance in France would be a requirement for Bottas to secure his future in F1, as his recent debacles have convinced Mercedes that maybe it’s time for George Russell to take the baton.

A bit surprised by Red Bull

Rosberg didn’t expect Red Bull to be too strong in France and considered the street circuits are their forte, but Max Verstappen’s powerful return on both days signal him a tight qualifying.

“We were a bit surprised yesterday because this is the absolutely Mercedes track,” Rosberg begins his analysis as a pundit at Sky Sports. “Yet in the Mercedes sectors as well, Red Bull were really strong setting purple sectors, as a result of that I think qualifying will be so tight and interesting today.”

“We’ve had unusual tracks in Monaco and Azerbaijan, this is more of a normal track so yes this is an important test for Red Bull to see where they are on a normal track.”

“But also here it’s a special situation because so much of it is down to tyres overheating, especially on the front end so it’s a unique situation in that sense actually.”