Valtteri Bottas insists Williams’ late launch for its 2013 car is not a worry.
Ahead of the 22-year-old Finnish rookie’s March debut, it emerged that the famous British team will buck the trend by only unveiling its new Renault-powered FW35 after the opening pre-season test at Jerez.
"We have always prepared in order to use last year’s car in the first test session," Bottas is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper.
"We will be experimenting with a lot of parts for the new car, but of course the main focus is to get a feel for this year’s Pirelli tyres," he added.
"They are different to last year’s (tyres) and only in the testing will we see how they really behave," said Bottas.
It also emerges that Bottas’ race engineer this year will be a newcomer to that role, Briton Jonathan Eddolls, a former Williams data engineer.
"He is a really smart, young guy, who last year worked with me in the last few (Friday) practice sessions," Bottas is quoted by the broadcaster MTV3.
Bottas also has a new trainer, 32-year-old Finnish decathlete Jaakko Ojaniemi.
And Turun Sanomat reports that although Lewis Hamilton "would have liked very much to take his trainer with him" to Mercedes this year, Finn Antti Vierula will in fact work with his successor at McLaren - Sergio Perez - in 2013.