Claire Williams praises Valtteri Bottas's 'spectacular' F1 campaign

The former GP3 champion was promoted to a race seat alongside Pastor Maldonado this year after spending 2012 as the reserve driver for the Grove-based outfit.

Although the Finn's debut season has been blighted by a car that has not proved competitive enough to fight for points regularly, Williams says he is performing superbly.

"He has done a spectacular job for the team this year," Williams told AUTOSPORT. "The thing I have been most impressed with is his maturity and I suppose maybe, because of his nationality, his calmness comes out in situations where he could be completely the opposite."

Bottas is yet to score a championship point, but has outqualified his race-winning team-mate Maldonado six times in 10 races.

Williams believes someone of Bottas's calibre is helping the team move forward.

"He is just fantastic and engenders a respect in the team because of the way he operates," she added.

"He works really hard to make sure he does his bit to help drive this team forward.

"He's the all-round package, he's everything you want him to be in the cockpit, gives the feedback that the engineers need to develop the car, is great from a marketing and media perspective and is a great leader.

"You want someone who, when the chips are down, steps out of the cockpit and helps to galvanise the team."