Bottas lauds a team 'that knows how to win'

Upon his arrival at Mercedes earlier this year, Valtteri Bottas noted the stark difference in atmosphere which exists between the German outfit and Williams, his previous team.

Bottas settled in at his own pace with the Silver Arrows squad, progressively adapting to his new working environment and to a mentality which he had not encountered before in his F1 career.

"This team knows basically how to win," the Russian GP winner told Autosport.

"It is so hungry for the wins and for success, and everyone looks very upbeat [when winning] and disappointed when it's not a good day.

"It's very tricky in a midfield team or a team behind the bigger teams to have that kind of mentality. If you have a good result, you might be fourth or maybe third sometimes. That's a success.

"Also obviously Mercedes has big resources and many more people. That means you can focus 100% on different projects at the same time.

"In the smaller team you can compromise, you can focus on something for a while and then something else later.

"But when it's more people with more resources, you can focus on many different things at the same time, and that makes car development quicker and everything works more seamlessly."

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Bottas admits that he never sought to bring to Mercedes any familiar face from Williams, preferring to start from scratch with a well-oiled and experienced foundation.

"The team has a different kind of approach to meetings and new systems and new terms," Bottas added.

"So I had to kind of adapt into how this team works. That was the one reason why I did not really push for anyone from Williams to come with me.

"I wanted to start with the experienced people here, because they know this team the best."

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