Why Mercedes chose Bottas over Ocon

Toto Wolff has explained that Valtteri Bottas' improved performances in 2019 so far and his previous contributions to title triumphs were enough to earn him another season with Mercedes.

Bottas rebounded from a winless 2018 by winning two of the first four races of this season to lead Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' standings, although he has slipped a sizeable 62 points behind the Brit as F1 returns to racing in Belgium this week.

Wolff had narrowed his options down to retaining Bottas for a fourth season, or promoting Esteban Ocon from his reserve role, with the Frenchman having spent 2019 on the sidelines of F1 after a move to Renault fell through.

Ocon has since secured a switch to the French team for 2020.

Despite his determination to get Ocon back to racing in F1, Wolff said that Bottas' performances so far this year were too good to ignore.

The Mercedes boss said: "For 2019, we set Valtteri the challenge of coming back even stronger than we saw him in the first part of 2018 – and he has achieved that, with some really impressive performances in the early races this year.

"Although it has been his most successful first half of a championship so far, he is hungry for more and determined to keep on improving and raising his level.

"That's the mindset we want from all our team members.

"The results we have achieved together with Valtteri are no coincidence: he has been an integral part of our championship success in the past two seasons, his teamwork with Lewis has been exemplary and he has shown real strength of character in how he has responded to setbacks.

"I'm delighted that he will stay with the team for another season at least – and look forward to seeing him raise the bar even further."

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