Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Bottas admits Ferrari speculation 'disturbing'

Valtteri Bottas admits he finds speculation over a potential move to Ferrari "disturbing" when he is not in the car.

The Finn has been linked with a switch to Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen's replacement, with an option on Raikkonen's contract for 2016 yet to be taken up. Ferrari has reportedly been in discussions with Williams over any potential fee to secure Bottas' services in future, and he admits the speculation has been distracting.

"Once you're in the car you don't think about any speculation there is," Bottas told PA Sport. "There is nothing in your mind other than driving, but out of the car of course it is disturbing when there are some rumours.

"People are asking the same questions all of the time but it is Formula One and you have to deal with it. For me it doesn't make any difference who the speculation is with.

"In principle it isn't fair to Williams or to Kimi, there is nothing confirmed as to what will happen - it will be best just to leave us in peace and we can focus on the driving. When there is news it will be announced."

Bottas has previously told F1i he only sees Mercedes and Ferrari as more attractive options than Williams at this stage of his career.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.