Valtteri Bottas believes he has become a far more consistent driver this season compared to his first year at Mercedes. The Finn could very well be leading the championship had it not been for an unfortunate end to his race in Baku.
Bottas recovered well though and a strong second place finish in Spain demonstrated his point, he cannot afford any weekends off the pace like he did last season.
"I think this year I’ve been meeting more or less my targets with the performance for the beginning of the year.
"I’ve been able to continue the good performance since the end of last year and there’s been no weekends that I’ve been really way off the pace like there was a few last year. So I think I’ve learned from those.
"I need to continue my development. There’s never things that you can’t learn more. I still hope I keep improving. But there’s been mixed races and the end results haven’t been really I feel sometimes quite there that I think would have been possible with the pace we had.
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We’re so early in the season. I hope I’ve had my bad luck for the year."
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Japanese Grand Prix
Overview
Friday 27.03.26
Practice 1
02:30 AM
Practice 2
06:00 AM
Saturday 28.03.26
Practice 3
02:30 AM
Qualification
06:00 AM
Sunday 29.03.26
Race
05:00 AM
Friday 27.03.26
Practice 1
Fri 02:30 AM
Practice 2
Fri 06:00 AM
Saturday 28.03.26
Practice 3
Sat 02:30 AM
Qualification
Sat 06:00 AM
Sunday 29.03.26
Race
Sun 05:00 AM
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F1-stand 2026
Season
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | MercedesMER | 51 | |
2 | MercedesMER | 47 | |
3 | FerrariFER | 34 | |
4 | FerrariFER | 33 | |
5 | HaasHAA | 17 | |
6 | McLarenMCL | 15 | |
7 | AlpineALP | 9 | |
8 | Red Bull RacingRBR | 8 | |
9 | Racing BullsRCB | 8 | |
10 | Racing BullsRCB | 4 |
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