Valtteri Bottas has denied recent speculation surrounding his future, with suggestions he’s signed a pre-contract with Ferrari for 2016 or 2017 wide of the mark.
The Finnish driver is out of contract with Williams at the end of the season, though the team have an option to retain him for one more year, whilst fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen has yet to sign a new deal with the Italian marque for 2016.
That, as well as paddock gossip, led to reports that Bottas is being lined up to replace Raikkonen, with a pre-contract already signed.
That isn’t true according to Bottas: “I’ve heard plenty of stories and it is sometimes quite funny sometimes to hear those, because at in the end you know what the case is and what is not.
“There are a lot of people making up stuff and at the moment I am focusing on getting the maximum for us as a team. The rest, I don’t know yet,” he added.
“I am not really thinking about those [reports]. It is for my management to think [about] and like I said, I am personally just focusing on this moment and this season as I think this is the best thing for me to do for the future as well.”
Meanwhile the 25-year-old says he’s not too fussed about handing his car over to Williams development driver Susie Wolff for FP1 in Spain.
“Everyone knows this track really well and I’ve already had a lot of laps here in February, so getting into a rhythm shouldn’t take as long as maybe some other places.”
