Valtteri Bottas declared himself “fully recharged” as he returned to work at Mercedes ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 season.
The Finn faces a critical year with the German manufacturer after a mixture of bad luck and poor performance meant he went the full 21 races without scoring a victory.
By the end, Bottas would finish fifth in the Drivers’ Championship, 161 points behind champion and teammate Lewis Hamilton, and with Esteban Ocon now on the sidelines waiting for his opportunity that gap must be closed.
Chilled. Refreshed. And back to work. ? We checked in with @ValtteriBottas on his first day back in the factory ahead of the new season… pic.twitter.com/ZZUzWRS82V
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) January 16, 2019
However, at this point, Valtteri was just pleased to be back on the job.
“It was a really good break, I went to Finland to see Santa Claus, to South America, Chile and Argentina for a good holiday, [it was] a good disconnect from Formula 1 so [I’m] fully recharged for the new year,” Bottas claimed.
“It’s good to be back here [at the factory]. Everything is still as it was when I was here last time in December. Everyone’s working hard for the new car, it’s nice to see the progress we’ve been making.
“Soon I’m going to see the car in the wind tunnel and all that, [I’ve] already done some seat fittings for next year, already done some engineering meetings with the guys about testing and about the new year.”
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“It’s all pretty cool stuff, top secret stuff that I’m not going to share but it’s always an exciting time of the year seeing the thing coming together with the new car,” he added.
“The holidays are over, we’re all working for the new year hard and I look forward to 2019 and what it brings… I have good feelings.”