Valtteri Bottas is ready to race after his two weeks of testing with Mercedes. The new recruit of the Brackley team learned his new crew and procedures during the sessions.
“I leave testing feeling confident and ready to race. I feel that as a team we have been able to improve how we work together, that we have a great spirit and real will to win”, Bottas said.
“It’s been so nice over these past two weeks to see how we operate as a group, both on and off the race track. Thanks to everyone in Brackley and Brixworth for creating this beautiful package. I hope we can extract the maximum from it straight from the word go in Melbourne.”
“We’ve been testing lots of things, so it’s going to take a long time to analyse everything that we’ve done. I’ve had a massive learning curve over these eight days and that will continue but I can’t wait for the start lights to go out in Melbourne.”
Valtteri Bottas: “We have a great spirit and real will to win”
Meanwhile his teammamte Lewis Hamilton commented that he did not remember how tests went last year, but the 2017 sessions “felt like a good couple of weeks”.
“We’re working together better than ever as a team and Valtteri has done great to blend in and do a solid job”, Lewis continued. “We’ve had our up and down days with the car, learnt a lot from that and made plenty of changes. I’m happy with what we’ve gained knowledge-wise and feel confident we got everything we needed from this test to go out and fight in Melbourne.”
“The others seem quick, so it looks like we have a good battle on our hands. Ferrari have been doing a fantastic job. I think there’s more to come from them but their pace here has really been spectacular. I don’t know if Red Bull had their full package here. Usually they bring that to the first race but they’re definitely still up there and I expect a serious fight with both of those teams. I’ve never wished to dominate. Of course, I want a car that I can go out and fight for a Championship with – but for the fans it’s best when there’s multiple teams fighting for it.”
Testing, done…
Time to reflect…
Next stop, Melbourne… ?? pic.twitter.com/VY2kzYtBFE— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) 10 March 2017
