Mercedes has discovered a turbo issue was behind Valtteri Bottas' retirement from the Spanꦬish Grand Prix, a defect that Tot👍o Wolff reveals the team has never encountered before.

Fresh from his maiden F1 win in Russia, Bottas' burgeoning title aspirations took a major knock whe🙈n 🧔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 p༒roblem th🐽at Wolff admits has not been seen before.

"It was painful 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 m🐎omentum swings between Mercedes and Ferrari, Wolff admits limits are being pushed.

"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 smಌall. We are in a massive fight with Ferrari. On one side, this is very exciting and challenging. But on the other side, it is going to stretch us to our limits. 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 o🎃ver Lewis Hamilton in th꧃e drivers' reckoning.