Valtteri Bottas is confident Williams’ current performance won’t drop off next season and the team will be in a position to challenge at the front again.
The outfit has been the major surprise of the season. In 2013 the duo of Bottas and Pastor Maldonado scored just five points between them and finished 9th in the championship.
They have fared much better in 2014. Bottas has taken three podiums in the last four races to bring their points tally to 135, putting them seven points shy of Ferrari in third.
24-year-old Bottas is certain their current form is no flash in the pan and 2015 will see Williams battling at the front again.
“I think so,” he said when asked. “It’s good for us because we know that the base car is good. It’s been good to build from that and just keep getting it better and better.
“Next year is not that different – maybe the noses are going to be a bit different but it shouldn’t be the key – so we are confident that we can keep this curve in the right direction.”
Whilst the team’s rate of development last year was impressive, only a few components actually delivered an improvement. That’s not been the case this year according to the Finn.
“I think the difference is last year we kept bringing many more parts than this season, but the difference is this season all the parts we have brought have worked,” he explained.
“The correlation between the wind tunnel and the track has been much better. There has been some more changes made how the factory works with the wind tunnel and fine-tuning all these things.
“It’s really working and we’ve also been more selective with all the parts and maybe the team has looked at the bigger picture of the car and which areas to focus on and really focus on something rather than just on bits here and there and keep bringing them.”
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