Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Lynn keen to emulate Bottas at Williams

Alex Lynn wants to emulate Valtteri Bottas and use his development driver role at Williams as a springboard to a race seat.

Williams announced Lynn as its development driver on Wednesday morning, with the GP3 champion joining Bottas, Felipe Massa and Susie Wolff as part of the team's driver line-up. With the role focusing on simulator work as well as an opportunity to test the FW37 after the Spanish Grand Prix in May, Lynn said the example of Bottas - who won the 2011 GP3 title before a year as Williams test driver saw him promoted to a race seat in 2013 - was one he will look to follow.

“I am extremely excited to be joining Williams, a team with such incredible history and amazing potential," Lynn said. "Over the past year the team has made huge strides forward and it’s clear to see their determination to fight for more success in the future.

"I hope that with a strong year in GP2, while also helping to develop the F1 car throughout this season, I can follow in the footsteps of Valtteri Bottas who joined the Williams team in exactly the same Development Driver role. Through hard work and determination, he has gone from winning the GP3 title to earning his place as a Williams F1 race driver.

"Working with people like Sir Frank Williams and Pat Symonds is an incredible opportunity for me. There is so much experience here at Williams and I hope to be able to use the knowledge gained from these people to further develop my skills as a racing driver and respected member of this team. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming from the outset, we have hit the ground running and I am very excited about the challenges this role offers – particularly my on track activities driving the FW37 in a few months time.”

Red Bull confirmed to F1i.com that Lynn's move to Williams comes after he amicably left the Red Bull young driver programme.

Click here to see the full gallery of the first Williams FW37 images

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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.