Valtteri Bottas will be an F1 world champion, says Pat Symonds

Bottas spent his rookie F1 campaign at the back of the field as the Williams proved uncompetitive in 2013.

But the Finn was one of the stars of last season with the revitalised Grove team, finishing on the podium six times on his way to fourth place in the drivers' standings.

Symonds is convinced about Bottas's potential, and he reckons the 25-year-old is championship material.

"I'm really impressed with him," said Symonds. "He's very bright and he's very quick. He doesn't make many mistakes and when he does he learns from them.

"He's got a great personality and he's a real team player and I'm absolutely convinced that he's got the potential to be a world champion.

"I've worked with a few world champions in their early days and I've no doubt that Valtteri will be a world champion."

Symonds says it is not just Bottas's speed that makes him remarkable, but the other attributes that combine to make him championship calibre.

"It certainly isn't just one thing," he added. "It's not about being quick as that's almost a given and there are plenty of people who are quick but are never going to win the world championship.

"It's the intelligence, it's the application, the thinking about things, the hard work that is put in, the attention to detail... Those sort of things will win him the championship.

"I just would really, really, want that to be in a Williams car and it would be a great story."

The January 1 issue of AUTOSPORT magazine highlights Valtteri Bottas's emergence as an F1 star, asking whether he has now supplanted Kimi Raikkonen as Finland's big hope, and featuring an in-depth interview with Bottas himself