Valtteri Bottas says he is getting closer in pure performance to Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, but needs to apply that pace on a more consistent basis.
Bottas slumped to a win-less fifth in last year’s standings but this season is poised to finish second, with a mathematical chance of becoming champion, albeit 64 behind Hamilton with only 104 available.
Bottas and Hamilton were closely matched through the first five events but the Briton moved clear through the European stint of the campaign, stretching his advantage in the standings.
Speaking before last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, in which Bottas claimed his third win of the season after out-qualifying Hamilton, he said: “For sure you can improve on everything.
“I would say that qualifying performance in general, has been good, the raw speed is there, but not consistently enough.
“I haven’t been able to have clean Q3 sessions as often as I would have liked and that has put me at a slight disadvantage in terms of starting positions a few times.
“That’s one thing I need to work on, to minimise the mistakes and maximise every opportunity there is, about traffic or whatever.
“Another big thing is about race pace, the efficiency of the tyres, that’s quite a big thing. Driving style in certain corners and circumstances.
“I’ve found a good way to work with the engineers now and it’s really improving and we can see my gap to Lewis in terms of performance is shrinking, so I’m improving well at the moment.
“Obviously I would like to do it quicker, but I need that consistency and get those few details right to be able to achieve that goal. But I believe I can in the future.”
Second place in the Drivers’ Championship would represent Bottas’ best overall classification, having been third in 2017 and fourth, with Williams, in 2014.
