Bottas: The second half will be better for me

In his first 11 races as Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has firmly established himself in the team, winning twice and going into the summer break third in the Formula 1 World Championship standings, but the Finn believes that his best races are ahead of him while the man he replaced in the Silver Arrows outfit says that he might just be the perfect driver.

Reflecting on his season thus far, Bottas said, "I feel there are things I can still improve as long as I keep working with the team as we have been doing so far. I know the second half will be better for me and my best performances are still on the way. That's how I feel so that's why I'm really looking forward to the second half of the season. I would say the first half has been average because I always set targets very high but obviously some good moments as well."

Bottas is third in the championship standings behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and his teammate Lewis Hamilton. The Finn trailing leader Vettel by 33 points.

"I was hoping to be in a slightly better position in the championship," admitted Bottas. "I think we are still looking good for points in the constructors' but we've had some difficult races, which is not ideal and for us as only winning is good enough for the team. That's always going to be the target. We definitely have work to do and I have work to do."

"I really think the next two races [Spa and Monza] at least on paper we think should be a bit better for us, compared to Ferrari. But I think they've made some good progress and we definitely do have work to do. They are quick through the corners and we need to work on that and we need to work on our maximum downforce package. I think that's the main thing, so there's work to do."

"There's still many track to come that requires a lot of downforce. Spa is mainly about efficiency, Monza is very low downforce but then Singapore you need the downforce again. We are really working hard and trying to make the car better because if we don't make any progress it's going to be a tricky season," explained Bottas.

Meanwhile the man he replaced at Mercedes, retired World Champion Nico Rosberg who follows the championship, told Auto Bild, "I'm really impressed [with Valtteri]. He might be the perfect driver mentally because he is able to just concentrate on himself, making him consistent and fast."