Valtteri Bottas may be yet to score his first points in Formula One, but the young Finn is pleased with how he has fared during the first ten races of his F1 career after debuting at the beginning of the season.
Bottas, who won GP3 back in 2011, spent last season testing for Williams before making the jump to a full-time race seat this year alongside Pastor Maldonado. The team has scored just one point so far this season due to car problems, but Bottas is pleased with his work.
“I think without looking at the car performance, if I analyze myself, I think I can be reasonably happy with the first half because it’s still my first season,” Bottas told Richland F1. “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 teammate because everyone knows he’s quick and he’s won a race. 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 Finnish driver also believes that a lack of progress by Williams during the off-season has proved costly.
“I think our car is sometimes quite difficult to drive, a bit unpredictable sometimes. But I think compared to last year we are more or less now on the same level, even could be a bit better. It’s just a fact that everyone else has improved so much in the last year and we kind of didn’t. The base, the start level for this year wasn’t good enough so that’s the problem.”
However, Bottas believes that this form will not carry over into 2014 when a raft of new regulations come into force.
“But you know next year there are going to be big rule changes and hopefully then we have time to catch up with the others.”
Bottas’ junior career led many to believe he would immediately attain success in Formula One, but with the Williams FW35 masking his potential, the Finn is not to be written off yet.
