Williams today announced the signing of the young Finnish star Valtteri Bottas as the teams official test driver.
The 20-year old will take over the role that Nico Hulkenberg vacated as he moved up to a full time drive.
Bottas has shown his potential already over the years driving for the Finnish national karting squad before concluding his karting career by winning the WSK International Series Formula A and Finnish ICA. 2007 saw him move to Formula Renault where he went on to win bother the Eurocup and NEC championships with 17 wins and 22 podiums from 28 starts in 2008.
Moving on to 2009 he graduated to Formula 3 with ART and finished the season third in the championship and becoming the higest place rookie on the way, along with this acheivement he also took the F3 Masters title.
On his appointment, Frank Williams said, “Valtterri's CV is very impressive, with a long list of success in the right junior formulae. We hope that the role of official test driver in our squad will provide him with another step in his development. We wish him all the best in the Formula Three Euroseries this season.”
Valtteri said, “This is a great way to start 2010. I am very honoured to have been selected by a team as prestigious as AT&T Williams, one of the most significant names in the sport. This is an important step in my career but now the real work starts to get to the top. I am sure I will learn a lot with the team and I trust that together we will achieve great results for the years to come. This opportunity gives me even more positive energy to improve as a driver and achieve my future targets as my ultimate goal will be to become Formula One World Champion one day. I take the opportunity to thank Sir Frank Williams and the senior management of the team and also to thanks my management and my sponsors for all their work and support so far.”
