Valtteri Bottas believes Ferrari will maintain its straight-line speed advantage at Formula 1’s Cana🌄dian Grand Prix, despite Mercedes introducing an engine upgrade.

Mercedes confirmed it had brought a new “Phase 2” power unit to this weekend’s race in Montreal, an update that has 🗹been taken by both the works squad and its customer teams Racing Point and Williams.

Ferrari - which has proved to be the benchmark so far this year in terms of outright top speed - already made its first power unit change of the season at the Spanish Gran🤪d Prix inꦇ May, but has introduced new turbo and MGU-H elements for both its drivers in Canada.

And Bottas thinks the Scuderia will retain the “upper han🃏d” in engine performance.

“We don’t think it’s quite yet enough to mat𓆏ch Ferrari’s straight-line speed,” Bottas said during his Thursday media♓ session.

“They will have the upper-hand on that, but we have our strengths in other arꦦeas.

“I don’t think there’s ever a perfect car, there’s always things you can improve, at least for now. For sure the engine upgrade is very welcome. That is thanks to ꦚall of the work at Brixworth.

“Obviously it’s something we need to see physically ho🦂w it ac𒈔tually behaves on-track and everything. We also need to make sure that it’s reliable.

“We’re expecting already from a fresh engine a tin🉐y bit of power gain, but we’re expecting a small step forward.”

Mercedes is seeking its 🅘seven consecutive victory of the season this weekend and continued to set the pa🦩ce in FP1, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton edging out Bottas by 0.147s.

Charles Leclerc was nearly a second adrift in the timesheets as the fastest Ferrari driver in third, though he comfortably topped the speed trap ღfigures for the Italian squad.

“I ⛦think it’s coming to the right time📖 because the first engine is running towards the end of its life, so we will have needed a new one anyway,” Bottas added.

“But it’s nice to have the upgrade here, definitely, for example compared to Monaco. The engine is much more valuable here, so it’s good timing f♛or that.

"We need to see how it actually feels and works, and how much it is going to b🅷enefit compared to the old one.”

Bottas had a slight reliability concern right at the end of opening practice as he reported "misfiring" issues with his po♚wer unit, with Mercedes suspecting a loss of fuel pressure to be the cause.