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Claire Williams has paid tribute to her former driver as the Finn leaves the team to join Mercedes for 2017. Bottas was announced as Nico Rosberg's replacement after over a month of waiting.
Bottas began his career at Williams in 2010, and made his race debut with the team in 2013. Since then he has gone on to claim nine podiums, but is still in search of a victory.
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Williams said: "Valtteri has obviously been a big part of Williams, he started his Formula One career with us, as our development driver back in 2010, he was quickly promoted up through test driver, reserve driver and then took the race seat in 2013.
"So he's been an integrate part as a development of this team over the past three years. He's taken us to many podiums, he's secured many points for the constructors championship for us, and in 2014 and 2015 helped drive this team to third in the constructors championships."
"So he's played such an important role but equally looking at the performances that Valtteri brings to the team, he's also a great person. He's very much a team player and knows the importance of embedding himself into a team and making relationships with engineers, not just on the engineers side but on the marketing side."
"He understands what you need to do to be a holistic F1 driver in the sport today so Mercedes are very lucky to have him, our loss is their gain."
Fergal Walsh
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
C. Sainz jr
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