How Bottas is using his Mercedes knowledge for Alfa Romeo's benefit

Valtteri Bottas feels that he has been able to bring his experience from Mercedes to help in continuing to develop Alfa Romeo's simulator. The Finn is in his first season for the team following a five-year stint with the Silver Arrows, and he admits that he instantly noticed the difference between their simulators when he first tested out Alfa's. "Nowadays, of course, the simulators are hugely important with the lack of testing, and as the technology improves you can get more and more out of it," Bottas told media, including RacingNews365.com . "The first time I tried the Alfa Sauber simulator, I could feel that there was quite a difference to the one at Mercedes, because Mercedes started a long time ago, and our team only started a few years ago. "So, of course, there's catching up to do."

Bottas praises improvements in Alfa Romeo simulator

Bottas thinks that there have already been improvements in Alfa's equipment, though, and feels that he has benefitted from this during recent race weekends. "From the first time I tried it versus what it is now, it's already hugely improved," the 10-time race winner explained. "And it has been already this year, especially the last couple of events, a really useful tool to kind of support the race weekend. There's always a driver at the factory during the race weekend, doing similar set-up tests and doing the correlation. "It's been rapid progress on that, and that keeps going, and it is already a really good tool."

How Bottas has utilised his experience from Mercedes

Following his extensive background in Formula 1 with Mercedes, Bottas believes that he has been able to offer his input into continuing to improve the simulator. "There [are] still improvements to be made," he added. "Obviously, I've given my part to it based on my experience, and I'm sure it has helped as well. "[For] example, this weekend [in Miami], it was really, really useful to get to know the track and actually try a few different set-ups or wing levels, so you get a bit of an idea before coming here."