Valtteri Bottas not worried about waiting for confirmation of 2018 drive
Valtteri Bottas says he’s unconcerned about not having his Mercedes drive guaranteed for 2018, despite his strong start to the season.
The Finn is signed on a one-year deal, and while he has done a good job the team is keeping its options open and waiting to see how the driver market unfolds.
“I feel normal, because every single year in Formula One for me I’ve had the same situation,” said Bottas. “I’ve had no idea at this point what’s going to be next year. So, for me it’s a normal situation. I know some kind of plan, when they’re planning to have things sorted – but that is between us. There’s no rush.”
However, despite expressing that confidence, he insists that he doesn’t know when he’ll be told if he will keep the drive.
“I don’t know when I will know. The timeline is quite flexible but like I said, there’s no rush really. For sure discussions will be opened soon, because as a driver, at some point, it’s always nice to know what you’re going to do next year but no more to say than that really.
“It’s still a bit early days for that and for sure I’m keen to have a long term relationship with Mercedes, that is my target, and that’s why every day I work hard and try to make the most out of every single situation and the race weekend.”
Regarding prospects for this weekend in Baku he said: “I can’t predict. As we’ve seen it’s been extremely close in some races, well, most of the races between us and Ferrari, so it is very difficult to predict, especially on a track like this.
“Some sections, a bit like Monza, some a bit like Monaco. I think it’s going to be close again but, like you said, we sometimes had a bit of difficulty to get the car set up well and get the real confidence with the car and also to get all four tires to work with each compound. So, impossible to predict.”
Bottas acknowledged that Baku is not an easy track to master.
“It is definitely a challenge here. It is one of those places like Monaco or Singapore that you just can’t afford any mistakes when you’re going so close to the walls, sometimes even slightly touching them, so that’s always a challenge and there’s nice excitement as a driver and it’s one of those places where if you put in a nice qualifying lap for example, it’s really satisfying and you need to take some risks, can’t lose focus at all.
“I think the high speed section, leading to the main straight, those corners, last year, with new tires, low fuel, they were just about flat out but this year it will be easier so I think in qualifying for example, it’s not going to be a big challenge to make them flat out but in the race, high fuel, worn tires, following other cars, it’s still a challenge over there.”
