Valtteri Bottas refuses to read George Russell Mercedes rumours but admits he must improve

“All I can say is that I can do much better if you look at the last four races on average. I feel that I need to do better.”

Bottas can secure a second-placed finish ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the final F1 driver’s standings this weekend provided he finishes fifth or higher.

He said: “For sure it would be better than third. Being in this team as a Mercedes driver I think the team deserves to be one and two with the car we have this year. Of course that is the target.

Speaking this week about the idea of replacing Bottas with Russell for 2021, team principal Wolff said: “He’s a Williams driver, and is signed up to Williams. And our driver line-up is Valtteri and Lewis.

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“So I don’t see this as a realistic situation at that moment of time [2021]. But I can understand that it would be an interesting situation, both in the team and maybe a bit of a wild ride for all of us. Maybe we’ll have that in the future.”

Russell himself addressed the situation over his future ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he will return to Williams with Hamilton back after recovering from COVID-19.

“That was just a throwaway remark in the heat of the moment,” he said when asked about a comment in which he claimed he hoped to have given Wolff “a headache not just for 2022 but maybe sooner” after Bahrain.