After five seasons driving for Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas has joined Alfa Romeo at the start of this season and his journey with the team is going well so far and included a few finishes in the points.

Compared to what he was used to, Alfa certainly has got quite a bit of “catching up to do" in terms of technologies, starting from the simulator.

"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," he said.

"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.”

Bottas feels that Alfa is doing a good job at improving the simulator, that already looks significantly better compared to a few months ago.

"From the first time I tried it versus what it is now, it's already hugely improved," he 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."

Of course, "there are still improvements to be made," but the Finn is optimistic and is putting his experience from the years he spent in Brackley to good use.

"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."