Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Williams has ‘produced a really quick car’ - Bottas

Valtteri Bottas says Williams has “produced a really quick car” after he set the fastest time of the final day of pre-season testing.

While Mercedes was quickest on days two and three of the final test, Felipe Massa set the pace on Thursday before Bottas was fastest on Sunday. With Williams able to finish its programme early by choice and top the times, Bottas says he is confident of being “very competitive” when the season starts in Melbourne.

“It was a really good day and a great way to finish the test,” Bottas said. “One of the main points we have learnt is that the FW37 is very reliable. The car we are taking to Melbourne is very competitive and should make for an interesting start to the season.

“We have made the most out of our time testing and I need to say a really big thanks to the team, not only trackside but also everyone back at the factory as they have produced a really quick and reliable car.”

Chief race and test engineer Rod Nelson says the whole pre-season has been an encouraging one for Williams.

“Today’s programme was similar to yesterday, as we try to get the drivers in the best position before heading to Australia,” Nelson said. “Due to this the focus was more on performance with a mixture of long and short runs rather than just reliability work. Both drivers have worked extremely hard throughout the test and the entire team have worked very well together. We are really looking forward to Melbourne.”

The final day of testing as it happened

Click here for the gallery from day four of the final test

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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.