Valtteri Bottas hailed a “great day” for him and Williams after scoring the first points of his F1 career with eighth place.
“I’m very happy for the team, we got finally some points with me as well, and four points,” said Bottas to reporters after the race.
“Really did a very good job today. The strategy, the race start, pit stop, everyone from the team did so good job, I really feel like we deserved it.
Bottas said the team’s recent decision to remove the diffuser-blowing exhaust configuration from the FW35 “made quite a big difference, especially on this track”.
“I think we really did everything right, especially with the tyres,” he added. “I think we handled those wells, both in qualifying and also in the race.”
“All the race I had very good information from the pit wall how to manage the tyres, if I can push more or not, it was nice to have good support from the team there.”
Having a quicker car made it easier for him to prove his abilities, Bottas added:
“It feels much better. I think once we have more speed, like this weekend, maybe people see more what you can do in the car.
“Eighth position is starting to be closer to what I am aiming for and we are aiming for together. Of course we want to be further ahead but I think for now we need to be very happy.”
2013 United States Grand Prix
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Image © Williams/LAT
Sephiroth
17th November 2013, 22:06
Nice race for Bottas. That`s the difference between a hot-head driver like Maldonado and a professional. Bottas had more problems with the car than PM but he never complained like him.
OmarR-Pepper (@)
17th November 2013, 22:08
Please Williams, keep the pace next year. More teams to fight for the top are always a good sign. And I guess Maldonado will finally have to eat his words, he will leave Williams when they will finally have a good performing car. Too optimistic maybe, but dreaming is for free.
TMF (@)
17th November 2013, 22:14
then Pastor will claim it was all his feedback this year that made the car fast. After all he gave them more than they gave him.
BJ (@beejis60)
18th November 2013, 0:03
PDR v2.0?
Strontium (@strontium)
18th November 2013, 16:43
He had a good car last year, but he was too busy testing the barriers’ strength to use it.
But yes, I agree with you :P
dragoll (@dragoll)
17th November 2013, 22:09
Is it just me, or have Williams been backing the wrong horse in MAL all year, and now have jumped onto supporting BOT?
toiago (@toiago)
17th November 2013, 22:12
It may very well be the case. Especially now given that Maldonado decided to leave the team, there’s no point in supporting him as much as the one driver who’ll be retained for the next season.
PhilEReid (@philereid)
17th November 2013, 22:11
Same points for Williams now as 2011, with Mal with 1 point, and his teammate with 4.
Strontium (@strontium)
18th November 2013, 16:44
As much as I like stats like this, I hope Bottas changes this next race! I say only Bottas as there is no hope in wishing for anything from Maldonado.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
17th November 2013, 22:16
Yay! Great for him! I was wary of the return of Rosberg in the end but he held his position, well deserved!
Jake (@jleigh)
17th November 2013, 22:24
One wonders wether there are other teams also losing performance through their coanda exhausts.
James (@speedking84)
17th November 2013, 23:11
I don’t think the coanda exhaust neccessarily loses performance, in the case of Williams, Bottas said the car gave him more confidence and a better balance without the coanda exhaust. If you can drive a car with a coanda exhaust and adapt your drving style to suit, like Vettel has then there is a lot of performance to be found.
verstappen (@verstappen)
17th November 2013, 22:48
Go Bottas!
dot_com (@dot_com)
17th November 2013, 22:52
Bottas!! Great drive, really well deserved. Great pass on the outside of Gutierrez.
GuitarGraham
17th November 2013, 22:56
Fantastic job by Valtter, ive never been so pleased with an 8th place finish in my life. now that williams have got a driveable car we’re seeing the talent shine through. there will be much more to come from this guy as we move forward.
bchgrl1478 (@svfan)
17th November 2013, 22:58
Really happy Bottas finally scored some points. Well done!
troutcor
17th November 2013, 23:06
Nice photo of the Williams.
It makes a modern F1 car look good, which is the second-hardest thing to do next to making a modern F1 race interesting.
Somethingwittyer (@somethingwittyer)
17th November 2013, 23:23
Should be interesting to see how Williams will do next year given that blown diffusers will be out of the equation. They have always struggled with them, so they could be next year’s dark horse if it pans out for them.
dutch in sweden (@dutch-in-sweden)
18th November 2013, 0:00
Great drive and he showed his cool with that Kimi style overtake of Gutierrez. He will be my driver of the weekend.
bull mello (@bullmello)
18th November 2013, 2:51
Bottas is my DOTW too. So glad to see the hard work of the team and Bottas starting to pay off. For being a young driver, Bottas has shown a lot of maturity to keep his head down and keep on trying through a difficult season. I was encouraged when Williams signed Bottas, now he’s showing what he can do.
George (@george)
18th November 2013, 0:27
Solid drive from Bottas, the only disappointing thing for me was one overtake he didn’t pull off, think it was against a Toro Rosso down the back straight.
George (@george)
18th November 2013, 0:28
Ah, as dutch said above, Gutierrez. That overtake in t2 made up for it I suppose ;)
iAltair (@)
18th November 2013, 0:54
Obviously more deserving than his counterpart who claimed the team sabotaged his car.
Atrocious.
Nick (@npf1)
18th November 2013, 1:10
German RTL was proclaiming Vettel and Hulkenberg as winners of the race, but for me it has to be Bottas and Vettel. Great overtaking and a good result, well done.
GeeMac (@geemac)
18th November 2013, 4:45
Yes you did Valtteri, yes you did. This was the drive of the day for me, he was very strong, his pace was great on the option and he managed the primes perfectly. Even though Rosberg was gaining on him he resisted the temptation to take too much out the tyres so when Rosberg eventually did catch him, he could respond. Great drive.
prelvu (@prelvu)
18th November 2013, 5:10
Truly Awesome drive. I was hoping he will catch and pass Alonso. My Driver of the Day.