Bottas: Gap to Hamilton closed during testing

Valtteri Bottas believes he is already "pretty close" to Lewis Hamilton's level after getting more comfortable with the new Mercedes during pre-season testing.

Following Nico Rosberg's shock retirement at the end of 2016, Bottas was named as the world champion's replacement in mid-January. Joining Hamilton at Mercedes, Bottas admits it took him awhile to get fully comfortable with the W08 but says the gap between the two closed the longer testing went on.

"I think the first time I was in the new car, as expected you could definitely see I was getting used to everything," Bottas said at an event in Melbourne on Tuesday morning. "The car was behaving quite differently to what I am used to, but every single day I feel like – and I can see – that I managed to make good progress.

"In terms of long runs and short runs, especially at the very end of testing I started to feel more and more comfortable. So far what I have seen everything seems pretty close, but it's only testing and we are always driving at a different time of the day, doing different run plans, programs, etc. So it's impossible to say but we will find out very soon.

"For me I definitely feel like my rate of improvement is going to be big this year, so I feel every single time I spend in the car I am just getting better and more comfortable."

Ahead of his first race as Hamilton's teammate, Bottas says it is only a positive thing for him to be able to benchmark himself against the driver with the second-highest number of victories in F1 history.

"Well I think for me it's a great opportunity. For sure it's a big challenge, there's no doubt I will definitely need to prove myself to a lot of people and to the team that I deserve the place, but I just see things very positively. I see it as a great opportunity for my career to fight for wins and hopefully even for the championship.

"So I think going against Lewis I am pretty excited about that. He's a three-time world champion, he's a great reference and everyone knows how good he is as a driver. So it's great to be the teammate to Lewis and I just wish we can have a very strong year in this new era of Formula 1."

While keen to see how he stacks up against Hamilton, Bottas is not expecting to have a long time to acclimatize himself with his new team once racing gets underway and feels he can win on his first outing.

"That would be the perfect way to start the season and my career with Mercedes, but I'm not thinking about it too much. Obviously it's the only thing I want but I always want to just focus on my job and work as a team. If we do our work perfectly and I do my job perfectly, it's possible. The goal for me is to start the season in a good way and get the results early on."