Mercedes has discovered a turbo issue was behind Valtteri Bottas' retirement fromಞ the Spanish Grand🥂 Prix, a defect that Toto Wolff reveals the team has never encountered before.

Fresh from his maiden F1 win in Russia, Bottas' burgeoning title as⛄pirations took a major knock when he was forced to retire whilst running third in Barcelona.

A rare Mercedes power unit mechanical issue, the team set to work on investigating the problem and have now diagnosed a turbo problem tಌhat Wolff admits h💟as not been seen before.

"It was painf🐬ul to lose 15 valuable points with Valtteri retiring from P3. We've identified the root cause of the problem, which was the turbo. We haven't seen that defect before, which shows you that you need to be double diligent. This is a technical sport and if you stretch your limits, you'll encounter technical problems."

Pointing out that 🔯the margins for error are becoming smaller as the pendulum of momentum swings between Mercedes and Ferrari, Wolff admits limits are being pusheꦐd.

"It's always good to come away from a race weekend with a points advantage, no matter how small. But the gap is just that: very small. We are in a massive fight with Ferrari. On one side, this is very exci🐷ting and challenging. But on the other side, it is going to stretch us to our limit🍃s. You cannot base your current assessment on the balance of power on just Barcelona."

Ahead 🦂of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes leads Ferrari by eight points in the constructors' standings, though Sebastian Vettel retains a slim six point margin over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' reckoning.