Williams F1 Team rookie Valtteri Bottas has revealed that he is happy with his performance from the first half of 2013 so far.
The Finn has impressed despite a below-par machine, the FW35 has proved to be slow and inconsistent. While improvements are being made, on a driver level, Bottas is pleased with how he has been able to match his more experienced team-mate.
In an interview with RichlandF1, Bottas said: "I think without looking at the car performance, if I analyse myself, I think I can be reasonably happy with the first half because it's still my first season. I've been matching Pastor more or less. We've been very close the whole season so I think it's been good. He's a good reference for me as a team-mate because everyone knows he's quick and he's won a race."
However he admits that he is still learning and feels that some races could have been done better: "But you know, there's always things I'm learning all the time and when I look back, there's things you could have done better but that's part of learning and it's been okay."
The 23-year-old hasn't had the easiest of cars to work with but has recorded a best finish of 11th at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the best finishing position of the five rookies so far.
It was also Williams' best finish of the season up until Maldonado's 10th place at last weekends Hungarian Grand Prix - a race where Bottas recorded his first retirement due to a hydraulics problem.
But despite being happy with his performance, he knows that he has to work hard to improve all areas of his driving, not just a specific problem: "I cannot say any one area, really. I think there's everything we can improve from setting up the car, to qualifying performance, race starts, first laps of the race, tyre management, there's so many things.
"But for me there have been no surprises or no, I would say, problem areas so I just need to keep working all the areas."
Along with the competitive karting scene in Finland, Bottas picked out the "calm" mentality that Finnish drivers usually process - Hakkinen, Raikkonen and now Bottas - as to why the country produces such fast racing drivers, with that trait helping"in Formula 1 with a lot of pressure."
When asked if it was frustrating to drive the FW34 last season - a car which won a race - and then make his big debut driving the, frankly, slower FW35 he said: "I think frustrating is too strong a word for that. I think the fact is that everyone in the factory and including us drivers were not expecting to be in this position.
"We were hoping to make a step from last year. It didn't happen. So all we can do is keep working even harder to try to solve the problems."
Pin-pointing the main weak areas in the FW35, Bottas didn't hold back: "I think our car is sometimes quite difficult to drive, a bit unpredictable sometimes. The base, the start level for this year wasn't good enough so that's the problem."
While the Finn feels that this years car is slightly better than last years, he admits that other teams have made more of a jump and that's why they are lagging behind. However with the big rule changes for 2014, he is hopeful that "we have time to catch up with the others."
And what about his own future? When asked if he is hoping to stay at Williams for 2014 he said: "I really hope I can be here. And I hope that I have shown that I deserve it because I really enjoyed it here. I still see the potential we have. We have all the tools to make the car much quicker than what it is now. So I think for me it would be a great place to continue, so let's hope so."
As Formula 1 heads off on the summer break, will he be enjoying his time away from the car? "Not really, no. I prefer just to keep driving. I'm not really a holiday person."
However he admits that it "should be good" to visit family, friends and says that he is travelling to Barcelona soon to cheer on his girlfriend - Emilia Pikkarainen - at the world swimming championships.
Check out the full interview with Valtteri Bottas here.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
In an interview with RichlandF1, Bottas said: "I think without looking at the car performance, if I analyse myself, I think I can be reasonably happy with the first half because it's still my first season. I've been matching Pastor more or less. We've been very close the whole season so I think it's been good. He's a good reference for me as a team-mate because everyone knows he's quick and he's won a race."
However he admits that he is still learning and feels that some races could have been done better: "But you know, there's always things I'm learning all the time and when I look back, there's things you could have done better but that's part of learning and it's been okay."
The 23-year-old hasn't had the easiest of cars to work with but has recorded a best finish of 11th at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the best finishing position of the five rookies so far.
It was also Williams' best finish of the season up until Maldonado's 10th place at last weekends Hungarian Grand Prix - a race where Bottas recorded his first retirement due to a hydraulics problem.
But despite being happy with his performance, he knows that he has to work hard to improve all areas of his driving, not just a specific problem: "I cannot say any one area, really. I think there's everything we can improve from setting up the car, to qualifying performance, race starts, first laps of the race, tyre management, there's so many things.
"But for me there have been no surprises or no, I would say, problem areas so I just need to keep working all the areas."
Along with the competitive karting scene in Finland, Bottas picked out the "calm" mentality that Finnish drivers usually process - Hakkinen, Raikkonen and now Bottas - as to why the country produces such fast racing drivers, with that trait helping"in Formula 1 with a lot of pressure."
When asked if it was frustrating to drive the FW34 last season - a car which won a race - and then make his big debut driving the, frankly, slower FW35 he said: "I think frustrating is too strong a word for that. I think the fact is that everyone in the factory and including us drivers were not expecting to be in this position.
"We were hoping to make a step from last year. It didn't happen. So all we can do is keep working even harder to try to solve the problems."
Pin-pointing the main weak areas in the FW35, Bottas didn't hold back: "I think our car is sometimes quite difficult to drive, a bit unpredictable sometimes. The base, the start level for this year wasn't good enough so that's the problem."
While the Finn feels that this years car is slightly better than last years, he admits that other teams have made more of a jump and that's why they are lagging behind. However with the big rule changes for 2014, he is hopeful that "we have time to catch up with the others."
And what about his own future? When asked if he is hoping to stay at Williams for 2014 he said: "I really hope I can be here. And I hope that I have shown that I deserve it because I really enjoyed it here. I still see the potential we have. We have all the tools to make the car much quicker than what it is now. So I think for me it would be a great place to continue, so let's hope so."
As Formula 1 heads off on the summer break, will he be enjoying his time away from the car? "Not really, no. I prefer just to keep driving. I'm not really a holiday person."
However he admits that it "should be good" to visit family, friends and says that he is travelling to Barcelona soon to cheer on his girlfriend - Emilia Pikkarainen - at the world swimming championships.
Check out the full interview with Valtteri Bottas here.
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