Valtteri Bottas believes his experiences as Lewis Hamilton's teammate at Mercedes prove why Formula 1's Sprint weekends suit his abilities. The second Sprint event of the season takes place at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend, following the first in Azerbaijan. F1 changed the structure of the Sprint shortly before arriving in Baku, with Saturday's proceedings now separated from the Grand Prix, instead holding a Sprint Shootout 'qualifying' for the 100km race later that day whilst Friday's qualifying sets the grid for the main event. On whether he was looking forward to the alternative weekend schedule, Bottas told media, including RacingNews365.com : "The more we [do it], the more I actually like it. "Especially with this new format with the Saturdays separate, a separate quali - or Shootout – and then the Sprint. "It is more opportunity to score but the main thing for me is we are straight into action, one session which makes practice a lot more important than a normal Friday and then straight to quali, which is kind of cool. "The same on Saturday: no warm-ups, just straight to quali laps, it is more challenging, but I enjoy it."
A good thing
The Sprint format, with only one practice session before Parc Ferme conditions are implemented for qualifying, theoretically favours experienced drivers over rookies given the lack of track time ahead of competition beginning. Bottas has often started the weekend fast out of the blocks and, pointing to his experiences at Mercedes alongside seven-time World Champion Hamilton, he suggested he would prosper. "Obviously there are different experience levels on the grid but I consider this a good thing for me," said the 10-time Grand Prix winner. "For example, a few years back I remember there were so many cases where in practice, I was faster than Lewis but then he would get me in quali."
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