Bottas 'very keen' to improve for 2019 championship assault

Valtteri Bottas insists he is keen to get better in his performances so that he can become a contender for the 2019 drivers' championship, and has lamented the bad luck which he has suffered this season, calling his lack of fortune a "joke".

The Finn is fourth in the drivers' rankings following the United States Grand Prix, but has picked up the majority of his points from podium positions as he is the only performer in the top six yet to win a GP in 2018.

Bottas believes he has actually improved since last season, but needs to continue to do so if he ever wants to compete for titles.

“My goal is for sure to try and be stronger. One day things will come together," Bottas suggested.

“I think performance-wise every race this season I’ve been able to perform better than last year and that’s what I try to continue to keep doing with this team all the time, learning.

Tough day in the office. 5th today. We’ll keep pushing and we are looking forward to the Mexican GP next week ????#VB77 #F1 #USGP @MercedesAMGF1
???? @JanErikOlin pic.twitter.com/NOddMbtT29 — Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) October 21, 2018

"I am very keen to be better next year and hopefully that will bring those results."

China and Azerbaijan have presented the best opportunities for Bottas to win a race in 2018, but he eventually lost both due to a safety car period and then a puncture, which has once again left him cursing his luck.

“I don’t know in deep detail how the points would have been,” he told journalists after the US GP in Austin.

“I don’t like to calculate those things because in the end after each race that is the situation you’re in and you’re always trying to then make the best out of the future.

“But when you have many setbacks in a row then at some point it kind of becomes a bit of a joke and that’s for me how I felt at some point this year.”

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