Playing Hamilton's 'wing man' sapping Bottas' confidence

Valtteri Bottas admits he has begun to lose confidence as he struggles for results while Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton closes in on a fifth world title. Bottas has not won a race in his second Silver Arrows season and was referred to as Hamilton's "wing man" by team boss Toto Wolff earlier in the season.

Although Bottas says winning races remains his priority, Mercedes have not hesitated to impose team orders on him, with tweaked strategies in Hungary and Italy helping Hamilton win, while the Finn was called off when attacking his team-mate for the lead in Germany.

Bottas has qualified behind his team-mate in 10 of the 15 races so far this year, and says motivation is starting to sap away as he battles Kimi Raikkonen for P3 in the standings, having briefly flirted with a title fight in 2017.

"It is hard. It's always going to be hard, trying to beat him," said Bottas of Hamilton.

"And he's having a good run now. He's obviously really fighting for the championship and I'm not really anymore.

"I still want whatever is possible in the championship, I think third at least is possible so that's going to be the goal for me.

"I'll keep motivated and keep trying to bring good results. But I really feel like I need some good results now.

"It's been a while since I had good proper results, nearly one year since I won a race. So for confidence and everything, I need some results.

"I need to try and keep hungry and motivated for each race.

"Obviously mentally for me now compared to the first few races of the season, it is more difficult now to feel that same mentality that you are fighting for the championship and so on.

"I need to put targets for myself, I always need to have a target. If I just turn up like 'OK I am going to be here to help', it's not ideal.

"I need to have clear targets for each race weekend and that's what I'm going to do."

MORE: Mercedes' £2.5million F1-powered hypercar too loud to keep secret
MORE: Hamilton-Rosberg rivalry was like a 'volcano' - Wolff