Valtteri Bottas lost the first battle with new teammate Lewis Hamilton when he was outpaced in Melbourne qualifying, but the Finn still sees the upside of his first weekend as a Mercedes driver.
Bottas will start third, on the clean side of the grid, after losing out to both Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.
“Well, third position is not ideal,” he said. “I think in general I’m not happy for the result. But what I am really happy about and proud about is what the team has done, again, with this car. I only saw a very small part of the preparation of the new car in the new era of Formula One, and it’s really nice to see that all the work has paid off and we’re fighting at the very front.
“Obviously it seems to be very close this year, at least here. Just myself, I didn’t get any perfect laps in, so not that satisfied. Tomorrow is the day that matters. It seems that in the race starts we have been quite strong, so hopefully we can keep that form like what we have had in the practice, have a nice and clean race and get some really, really good points.”
Bottas expects that it will be tough to make progress in the race.
“I honestly think it’s going to be quite difficult to overtake here. I think you need quite a big pace difference between the cars to be able to do that – or a mistake. It’s quite tricky to follow – at least in practice – the other cars, but obviously we will see very soon. I think, strategy-wise, from what we see, you can do different things, definitely. But it’s difficult to see.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff is happy with his driver’s progress.
“He's competitive and probably setting his own targets, and it's the right attitude, but he has really progressed well over the days he has been in the car. And coming out that close in various sessions – during qualifying is actually what we have hoped for. So there is an awful lot of pressure I think if you're being put into that car next to Lewis. and he has coped very well.
“He was very focused and I had a chat with him in the evening and that is one of his strengths. That is – you need the talent to drive this car on the edge with the right speed and then you need to have the diligence and the understanding of doing the office job right.
“And I think there was never any doubt on him being able to drive the car fast and now it's about putting the dots together and learning and developing and so far he didn't do any mistake, he kept driving and you can see how the times are coming together.”
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