12:16 – Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has accepted that he needs to improve his one-lap pace, and string a more consistent campaign together, if he is to compete for the Formula 1 title in 2018.
Bottas switched from Williams to Mercedes in the wake of Nico Rosberg’s retirement, and emerged as a title contender, but gradually drifted away from the fight, as team-mate Lewis Hamilton triumphed.
Bottas endured a sequence of difficult events mid-season, regularly qualifying half a second adrift of Hamilton, as the Briton finished the year with 11 pole positions, compared to Bottas’ four.
Bottas, who lost the Mercedes qualifying scrap 13-7 overall, has pinpointed one-lap pace as a primary area in which to improve, and is aware he cannot slip up in a title battle.