Bottas not concerned about coming 10th in boss vote

Valtteri Bottas has shrugged off the fact that he was voted as the 10th best driver of the 2017 Formula One campaign by F1 team bosses despite coming third in the championship rankings behind just Sebastian Vettel and his Mercedes partner, Lewis Hamilton.

The Finn was voted ninth in the rankings last year when with Williams and has bettered that campaign significantly this time around as he has won three Grand Prix races since joining Mercedes.

Despite that improvement, he has been voted in at one place worse this year in 10th by the team bosses, but has claimed he is unconcerned with such polls.

“There’s always all kind of polls and stuff,” he told the media at the FIA prize-giving gala.

”I don’t really think about it, if I‘m under-rated or things like that.

“Really what matters is how I perform on track: how many races I will be able to win in future. The main thing is within the team, that they know exactly my level of performance, that they know what I‘m capable of doing.

“I think as a driver I’ve definitely learnt a lot. I’ve felt that sometimes I had quite a hard lesson, I really struggled in some races with the car and my driving.

“I really have to work on many of the issues and learn from those and get better. I think out of all the seasons I’ve had in Formula One, this is the one where I’ve learnt the most.”

There have been some people in the sport who have questioned Bottas' supposed acceptance to play as a good team-mate to Hamilton rather than go for championships more himself, but he has insisted that he can challenge when the time is right.

”I know that this will be up to me,“ he continued. ”We are able to race Lewis with equal machinery and equal terms, we are going to be allowed to race on the track so it’s up to me.

“If I can perform in qualifying, and well in the races pace-wise and in racing situations, then I can fight for the title if we have a good car.”