Williams F1 team replaces steering assembly on Bottas' car

Bottas lost a likely top six finish in the closing stages of F1's recent Marina Bay race, when a problem with the self-aligning torque of his FW36's steering contributed to him wearing out his tyres faster than rivals.

Williams has been unable to determine the cause of the problem, so has elected to change Bottas' steering assembly for this weekend's Suzuka round as a precaution against a repeat.

When asked by AUTOSPORT if Williams had got to the bottom of the steering issue, Bottas said: "No, not yet. We've been struggling to make the exact conditions; it must have been something to do with the temperature.

"Everything has been tested as normal with normal temperatures, so we need to find a way to create hotter conditions for the power steering to see if it was something related to that.

"In normal checks there was nothing, but I'm sure there was something wrong, so we need to make sure we get the test done in the same conditions [as Singapore], understand what it is and make sure it doesn't happen again."

ENCOURAGED BY SINGAPORE SPEED

Williams will trial a major aerodynamic upgrade during tomorrow's free practice sessions and Bottas said Williams' Singapore form - on the sort of twisty circuit that hasn't suited the FW36 this year - gave him added confidence Williams will be strong for the remainder of the campaign.

"It was nice to see how well we performed in qualifying at Singapore and that we were closer to pole position than we expected," Bottas added.

"That gives me confidence for the rest of the year.

"We can do well at any track. We have some updates to try tomorrow, and if they work that will benefit all races for the rest of the year."