Valtteri Bottas completed the first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing for Williams Martini Racing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The Finn completed a total of 80 laps behind the wheel of their FW38, with a fastest lap time of 1m26.091s, only 0.047s behind the Red Bull Racing of Daniel Ricciardo in third.
Bottas feels that the team have made some improvements since the 2015 FW37 but feels it’s way too early to say anything more in regards to where they sit against their rivals.
“It’s always very nice to be back in the car and it’s nice to feel that we have made improvements, but it is way too early to say anything more than that,” said Bottas. “We were focusing on different kinds of tests today with the chassis, and some aerodynamic tests so mainly longer runs. We had a few problems but that’s testing, and hopefully we will have a clean run tomorrow.
“First impressions of the new car are good and I think we have fixed many issues from last year. However, like I said before, it’s just too early to say where we are against the others.”
Bottas will be in action once more for Williams tomorrow when pre-season testing continues in Barcelona.
