Bottas interview: Why I couldn’t take my old engineers to Mercedes

The Finn got a late call-up in January to replace Nico Rosberg, and has taken little time to get up to speed – taking his maiden pole position in Bahrain and adding his first victory in Russia.

But while many drivers who swap teams like to take their old engineers with them so they have a bit of a comfort zone in their new surroundings, Bottas elected for a totally different approach.

Instead, he deliberately wanted to start afresh – electing to stick with Rosberg's old crew of race engineer Tony Ross and Marcus Dudley.

He thinks being forced to get up to speed with the Mercedes way of doing things was a much better way to learn the ropes at the German team, rather than trying to force his old working practices.

"It was something I decided from the very beginning," Bottas said in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com. "I heard I would be working with Tony and Marcus, who were engineers for Nico.

"So I thought that would be for me perfect, because there is a lot I can learn from them and they will help me to learn how the team works. I thought that's the best."

He added: "For sure, people work differently. Every human is different and you work differently with everyone.

"The team has a different kind of approach to meetings and new systems and new terms, new works. So for sure I had to kind of adapt to how this team works.

"That was the one reasons why I did not really push for anyone from Williams to come with me. I wanted to start with the experienced people here, because they know this team the best. And so that was the reason for that."

Speaking up

Although Bottas' situation has made him adapt to Mercedes' ways of working, he insists he has not been scared to speak up about areas that he is not happy about.

And he says it is testament to the strength of the Mercedes operation that it is willing to listen to him, rather than feel that its approach cannot be challenged.

"I haven't found it difficult. I always say things very straight," he said. "If I feel something is not quite right, I always keep my honest opinion, and that's what I always try to do.

"The team appreciates it. For sure Lewis [Hamilton] has much more experience with this team and with this people and the car, but that's the only thing I can do, to give always my honest opinion about everything and whatever can be improved from what I think."

And that is why Bottas feels the transition from arriving by himself at Brackley to now feeling a complete part of the team has happened so quickly.

"This team has been really supportive, and I don't feel like I'm alone," he said. "You know, I feel I'm part of this team and we are in this together – and just really enjoying it.

"I know there is a long season ahead and I'm confident that my pace will just only keep improving, and they are very happy with my personal performance.

"I have no pressure. I am just enjoying it and trying to improve day by day, and by that, as always, good things will come."

New atmosphere

Having spent his entire F1 career at Williams, Bottas has had to learn quickly about how different things are working for an outfit backed by a major car manufacturer.

And he says one of the most striking things he has discovered is how focused the outfit is on winning, and how disappointed it is when it does not come out on top.

"For sure its different, you know," he said comparing it to Williams. "I think the main thing comes from the mentality, because this team knows basically how to win. It is so hungry for the wins and for success, and everyone looks very upbeat and disappointed when it's not a good day.

"It's very tricky, you know, in a midfield team or a team behind the bigger teams, to have that kind of mentality. If you have a good result, you might be fourth or maybe third sometimes, that's a success.

"So it comes from the mentality, but also obviously Mercedes has big resources and many more people. That means at the same time you can focus 100 percent on different projects.

"In the smaller team you can compromise, you can focus on something for a while and then something else later. But when it's more people with more resources, you can focus on many different things at the same time, and that makes car development quicker and everything works more seamlessly."

Interview by Oleg Karpov and Roberto Chinchero