F1 2017 won't be settled by tyres, Mercedes' Bottas feels

Superior tyre usage and lower degradation were key to Ferrari's two grand prix wins so far this year with Sebastian Vettel.

That advantage allowed Ferrari to adopt more aggressive tyre strategies and meant Vettel leapfrogged Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in the pitstop phase on both occasions.

Bottas's Bahrain Grand Prix, which he started from pole, was hamstrung by tyre problems.

But he thinks it is only a matter of time before Mercedes and Ferrari have both fully conquered the 2017 Pirellis and pure car performance becomes the deciding factor.

"It's more difficult to master every compound for every Tarmac, and how they behave," he told Autosport.

"I think it's been always like that in F1, but now that our car with Ferrari is so equal small things like tyres [can decide the outcome].

"In the end, it's the only thing in contact with the car and the ground.

"But my thinking is in the future it's going to be less and less speaking about the tyres.

"Once people and teams learn more about getting everything out of the tyres in the right windows in different conditions, then I think probably everyone is going to be equal in how they handle tyres.

"So there is going to be less speaking about tyres and it's going to be more about the cars, and set-ups and car development."

Bottas admitted Mercedes had been surprised by just how strong Ferrari had begun 2017, a season when Red Bull had been tipped as the most likely threat to the champion team.

"We didn't expect [it] really," said Bottas about Ferrari's resurgence.

"So they've been surprisingly good.

"They had a very good winter and very strong car development since last year. A big step.

"They are managing their tyres at every single track on every Sunday and they've been very much on top of every compound of tyres.

"They've done a very good job on that.

"And I think it's a very good challenge to try and beat them. For sure, we wanted to be ahead.

"We wanted this season to be so far better for us, but I think it's very good in general having the competition.

"It makes us try harder. It makes every single race weekend, every single session very interesting, not only for us, but for everyone."