Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Massa wants to continue Bottas pairing

Felipe Massa wants to continue his driver pairing with Valtteri Bottas, saying he works well with his Williams team-mate.

Bottas was linked with a move to Ferrari to replace Kimi Raikkonen earlier this season, but Raikkonen has since been retained for 2016. With both Mercedes seats taken, Bottas is likely to remain at Williams next year but has yet to have his contracted extended.

Asked if he is surprised by Ferrari's decision to stick with Raikkonen, Massa replied: "No.

"I think it’s what they decided to do and they are pretty much sure they are working with what is best for them. I think Ferrari was working for some months to decide what to do and they wanted to keep Kimi, so I’m happy for Kimi.

"Hopefully me and Valtteri can be another year together and we are working well in the team. We will just wait and see if this will happen or not, but hopefully this will happen."

And Massa says he expects Williams to ensure the current driver line-up remains in place for next season.

"I think so. I don’t see the reason why not. I expect yes and I think Valtteri is a good driver who has shown how he can perform and how good he can be for the team. So I expect so."

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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.