Valtteri Bottas has been gifted the great opportunity of racing for the Formula 1’s most dominant team, but the gift is also a double-edged sword as the Finn will be under immense pressure to perform within an outfit that has won six championships in three years.
Bottas told MTV in an interview, “It would be very easy to allow the pressure to stress me out. But in Formula 1 I have noticed that when pressure piles up, it can become very harmful.”
“My objectives are always very high, I myself set the bar very high, so I believe that when the pressure comes, it mostly comes from me rather than from the outside.”
Bottas spent four years with Williams before Mercedes came calling, “Both the teams want to win races and be successful and although [Mercedes] won all the titles over the past three years, it is still not enough for them.”
Bottas knows he will first have to beat his own teammate, triple F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, who is acknowledged to be one of the best in the business right now, “Lewis is going to be a great reference, everyone knows exactly how good he is, he’s a great driver.”
“I am sure as a pair we can work well, I’m sure we can be good team players together. I see no issues at all between us. I am sure we can work well together, push each other on the track hard, race fair but really hard and at the same time push the team together.”
Bottas has yet to win a grand prix in 77 starts, but that is likely to change in 2017, “I want to win races and championships and in that sense the objective remains the same.”
“I have huge support from the team and that will certainly help me in every situation. My task is still to drive the car as hard as I can. That will never change,” added the 27 year old.