F1: Williams expects to leapfrog Red Bull

Valtteri Bottas believes the Williams Formula 1 team should be able to bounce back from a difficult Monaco Grand Prix by beating Red Bull and threatening Ferrari in Canada.

Neither Bottas nor Williams F1 teammate Felipe Massa managed to score points in Monaco, where the FW37 struggled badly compared to its main rivals. But the layout of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is better suited to Williams's low-drag, high power design philosophy, and Bottas believes his team will be back on form here.

"I think we should definitely be looking to beat the Red Bulls here," he told reporters in the Montreal paddock. "In Spain we were not that far off Ferrari, so if we can make a small step forward we should be pretty close, but it's [also] up to how much they improve.

"By the pure pace of the car, I think places three to five is going to be with us and Ferrari, so if we are close to them anything is possible. I can't say we are going to beat Red Bull but we will do the best we can to do it."

NOT ONLY DOWNFORCE MISSING

Bottas reckons Williams's poor performance in Monaco, where both its cars failed to qualify or finish inside the top 10, suggests the team's deficit to the leading squads is not only in downforce.

"I think we're still missing downforce, but for some reason in the slower-speed corners as well we are not so competitive – so it's not only aero, it's also something mechanical," Bottas added.

"There will always be differences in the cars on different tracks, but if the car is good it should be good everywhere. We definitely need to work on that so we can be more track-specific on what we're doing with aero packages and the setup of the car, and always make sure we get the most out of the car we have.

"If you have a good car there are no places it's really slow. We need to improve everything if we want to win races."