• Formula 1
    •  September 15, 2016

    Bottas Relishes battle for 4th with Force India and Speculates 2017 Team-mate

    September 15, 2016
    Ryan Ashenhurst
    Author Signature
    Ryan Ashenhurst
    Contributor
    Ryan Ashenhurst
    Ryan Ashenhurst
    Contributor
    Author Signature

    Valtteri Bottas and Williams head to the Singapore GP looking over their shoulders at the relentlessly pursuing Force India. The three-point advantage that the Grove team possess will definitely swing again this weekend.

    Bottas is relishing the fight and believes the battle will be tight. He said,

    “It’s going to be a great battle between us and Force India. We’ve been really close [across] the last six races, at some tracks they have their strong points and some places [it suits] us.

    So I think overall we are very, very equal in terms of how quick the car is, so it will depend race by race. [We will] try to maximise everything, get the strategy right and have a good qualifying to get ahead of them.”

    – Valtteri Bottas

    Last year, Bottas finished the Singapore GP with an impressive 5th – an unlikely result given the fact that the Williams in recent years has been better suited to low aero layouts. A similar result is desperately needed as Force India will be strong here.

    Bottas has also been putting so me thought into who will be driving alongside him next year. He’s remained murky about whether his new partnership with another driver will be in the Williams garage next season too. He said,

    “One thing it is a fact that I’m going to have a new team-mate next year. It’s still not obviously confirmed if I will be with Williams or not, but a new team-mate, it doesn’t matter who it is, as long as he’s quick, it boosts the performance of both drivers and helps the team.

    [Having] a team player will be nice, but obviously I have nothing to do with choosing the team-mate, it’s completely up to the team I’ll be racing with.”

    – Valtteri Bottas

    NUREMBERG, GERMANY - JUNE 24: Lance Stroll (CAN) of FIA Formula 3 Team van Amersfoort Racing during a free practice session in preparation for the upcoming 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championships at the Norisring during Day 1 of the German Touring Car Championship 2016 - Session 4 on June 24, 2016 in Nuremberg, Germany. (Photo by Oliver Kremer at Pixolli Studios/Getty Images)
    NUREMBERG, GERMANY – JUNE 24: Lance Stroll (CAN) of FIA Formula 3 Team van Amersfoort Racing during a free practice session in preparation for the upcoming 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championships at the Norisring during Day 1 of the German Touring Car Championship 2016 – Session 4 on June 24, 2016 in Nuremberg, Germany. (Photo by Oliver Kremer at Pixolli Studios/Getty Images)

     

    If Bottas does stay with Williams, a number of candidates make up the other half of the garage. Youngster Lance Stroll now has enough points for a super license and is still being linked to the vacancy. The other drivers who have been linked in recent weeks are Felipe Nasr, Sergio Perez, Daniil Kvyat and Alex Lynn. Your guess is as likely as ours! Whether two of these candidates are needed depends on whether Bottas decides to stay.

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