Bottas on duty for Williams at Abu Dhabi
Valterri Bottas was in the seat of the FW33 today at Abu Dhabi where Williams were testing a number of car changes, including a new exhaust system to prepare for next year's changed regulations. Apart from a gearbox problem at noon, there were no incidents at all.
Tom McCullough, Race Engineer: Valtteri had his first day properly driving the car after previously doing straightline testing with the team. He got straight into it and did a really good job, enabling us to get through quite a long test programme and get all the data we needed. It was a really good job from his side with the consistency and good technical feedback. We lost a bit of time over lunch with a gearbox issue which the team are currently investigating, but overall it was a very productive day evaluating parts for next year’s car.
Valtteri Bottas: I really enjoyed my first time driving the car on a proper track today. It didn’t take too long to get used to the car but there were still a few new things for me. There is much more downforce and power than the cars I am used to driving, but I really liked it and I think the day went well. It is physically very demanding, but I’ve been doing a lot of training for this and although it is hard in these hot conditions, I could still focus 100% on the driving side. I was able to help the team make some progress with some interesting tests for next year. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow as I have more to learn and I know I can do better.
AT&T Williams will be back on track tomorrow, Wednesday 16 November, with Valtteri Bottas continuing to drive the FW33 for the second day of the test.
