Bottas Willing to Play Team Game for Now

Mercedes’ F1 driver Valtteri Bottas is coping well with a difficult end to his 2018 Formula 1 campaign.

That is the news from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, after the Sochi-Suzuka doubleheader in which Bottas was clearly playing a second fiddle in support of runaway championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

Some have suggested Mercedes may try to reward Bottas for his support in the closing stages of the schedule — after Hamilton has clinched the inevitable championship. Hamilton leads by 67 points with just four races remaining.

When asked if that is a plan, Wolff simply said no.

“Valtteri is a great guy,” Wolff said during a press conference in Japan. “After the race at Sochi, he said ‘There is no need to discuss anything and if I was you, I would do the same’.

“He said ‘I understand that I need to perform better from the very beginning of the season in order to really go for the title, and I did not.'”

There are 4 races left on the F1 calendar and Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of clinching the title. However, aside from that, the constructor championship is just as important. For this, Mercedes need both cars to finish ahead of Ferrari. Especially considering that the Maranello squad has been floundering in the past few races, the advantage is with the Silver Arrows.

On the subject of Bottas, the Finn has been very unlucky on a number of occasions. Even in the Russian GP, the 29-year old was in a position to win but was told to give way to Hamilton. In essence, he was robbed of what could have been a well-deserved victory. Hopefully for the sake of the sport, the team opts to make it up to him in one of the remaining races.