Bottas claims he's taken performances "to next level" in 2018

Despite coming off a heart-breaking loss in Baku, Valtteri Bottas thinks that he's taken his F1-driving to the "next level" in 2018, as the Finn sits third in the championship, 30 points adrift from teammate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

That would've been a different story, of course, if Bottas wouldn't have driven through that debris in Baku. He'd be first in the championship in that case. That's a big improvement from last season, when Bottas was the very obvious number two in the Mercedes pecking order, both in terms of team orders and in driving ability. The latter seems to have picked up this season, as Bottas has been agonizingly close to a victory twice already.

“Of course it was a great opportunity when you change to a new team, you meet so many new people with different views, with different ways of working and it’s a great opportunity for you to take yourself to the next level and I think that’s happening all the time now,” he told Crash.net

When being asked about the fact that he would've been leading the championship if he would've evaded that debris that forced him to retire, Bottas wasn't bothered too much by the whole thing as he knows he has plenty of time to redeem himself.