Jan.26 (GMM) Valtteri Bottas says he knows how to deal with the pressure of his new assignment in the cockpit of now-retired reigning world champion Nico Rosberg.
The Finn said it was not too difficult to make the decision to leave the comfort of Williams to switch to F1’s dominant German team for 2017.
“Both teams want to win races and be successful,” he told the Finnish broadcaster MTV, “but what really convinced me is that Mercedes is still really hungry to succeed.
“Although they’ve won all the championships for the past three years, it is still not enough.”
With a great opportunity, however, comes great pressure for the 27-year-old, who will be paired with triple world champion Lewis Hamilton and needing to prove himself to Mercedes with a mere one-year contract.
Bottas said: “It would be very easy to take a lot of pressure and stress yourself. But in formula one I have noticed that if pressure piles up, it only does you harm.
“My goals are always so high – I set the bar really high – so I believe that if the pressure comes, it is mostly from me rather than the outside.
“I want to win races and championships and in that sense the objective is not changing. I have huge support from the team and that will certainly help me in every situation,” he added.
Bottas admits he starts 2017 needing to quickly adjust to a new environment, but insisted: “My task is still to drive the car as hard as I can. That will never change.”