Valtteri Bottas was the next man in the hot seat and the question on all the journo's lips was…how close are you to resigning with Mercedes for next season?

Naturally, the Finn didn't give away too much information in regard to this matter apart from revealing that there is no rush to put pen to paper and he definitely isn't looking at any other teams for a drive in 2018.

While Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes his driver is in an unconformable position right now without anything locked in for next year, Valtteri tends to disagree as this is a normal situation for him to be in…

There's no doubting the speed of this year's Mercedes – the four wins are testimony to that – but it has proved tricky to set up. Can you predict how competitive you're going to be this weekend – particularly as there's no ultrasoft tyre? Or is it something you're only going to find out when you take to the track tomorrow?
No, I can't predict. As we've seen it's been extremely close in some races, well, most of the races between us and Ferrari, so it is very difficult to predict, especially on a track like this. Some sections, a bit like Monza, some a bit like Monaco. I think it's going to be close again but, like you said, we sometimes had a bit of difficulty to get the car set up well and get the real confidence with the car and also to get all four tyres to work with each compound. So, impossible to predict.

Do you think the harder tyre compounds this weekend will help you?
I don't think it's going to help us in any way. The tyres are going to be the same for everyone, it is up to us to get them to work well and that is going to be through the set up.

Your boss Toto Wolff said this week at the FIA Sport Conference in Geneva that you're in an uncomfortable position at the moment: still without a drive for 2018. Do you feel uncomfortable in this situation?
I feel normal – because every single year in Formula One for me I've had the same situation. I've had no idea at this point what's going to be next year. So, for me it's a normal situation.

Has the team told you when they'll let you know?
Yeah. I know some kind of plan, when they're planning to have things sorted – but that is between us. There's no rush.

With regards to your future, you said there's no rush. When do you think you will know, when do you want to know by?
I don't know when I will know. The timeline is quite flexible but like I said, there's no rush really. For sure discussions will be opened soon, because as a driver, at some point, it's always nice to know what you're going to do next year but no more to say than that really. It's still a bit early days for that and for sure I'm keen to have a long term relationship with Mercedes, that is my target, and that's why every day I work hard and try to make the most out of every single situation and the race weekend.

Are you in discussion with other teams, just in case?
No.

If you were a team principal and you had a new driver who is in a top team for the first time and makes pole position and win races in six rounds of the championship, until now, would you keep the driver?
Of course! Yeah.

Would you re-sign yourself?
Of course.

Can you just give a bit more comment about driving this circuit, the challenge of driving this track and the sort of combination of types of corner, not just from a set-up point of view but from the driving point of view? And turn 15? We saw quite a lot of action in turn 15 last year. Is that still a critical corner here?
So yeah, it is definitely a challenge here. It is one of those places like Monaco or Singapore that you just can't afford any mistakes when you're going so close to the walls, sometimes even slightly touching them, so that's always a challenge and there's nice excitement as a driver and it's one of those places where if you put in a nice qualifying lap for example, it's really satisfying and you need to take some risks, can't lose focus at all. I think the high speed section, leading to the main straight, those corners, last year, with new tyres, low fuel, they were just about flat out but this year it will be easier so I think in qualifying for example, it's not going to be a big challenge to make them flat out but in the race, high fuel, worn tyres, following other cars, it's still a challenge over there.

A lot of people were predicting incident and accident in last year's Grand Prix here but that didn't happen. Eighteen of the 22 cars finished. Are you guys going to take more risks this year?
We were kind of lucky, you know, after seeing all the GP2 races, now F2, how many safety cars and virtual safety cars they had whereas we actually had none and there was not much action. I think it is a track that normally with this type of track things will happen so my guess is that we're going to see a bit more of a mess than maybe before but who knows. We're always taking risks and always calculating risks, how much you take and there's no other from last year to this year that you...

Last year you reached 370/380kph here, the highest speed in a Formula One race. Do you think that with these new cars with more downforce it will be difficult to reach this speed?
I don't think we're honestly going to see that kind of speed now that the cars are more draggy, so it would nearly be a miracle if we can hit those kind of speeds with these bigger tyres and bigger wings. That's my opinion.

Lap times?
I think lap times will be quicker, I think it will be quicker. We are quite a lot quicker in the corners and apart from the two kilometre straight it is a lot of corners and that's where you need the grip and downforce.