Bottas not ready to be Hamilton's wing man

Valtteri Bottas has dismissed the possibility of Mercedes playing the team orders card early this season despite clear concerns that Lewis Hamilton could lose his world championship crown to Max Verstappen.

Red Bull has caught and, at some tracks, passed Mercedes as the most competitive team this season and Bottas has been a clear second best to Hamilton in the opening three races of the year.

Verstappen has won once and is just eight points behind Hamilton but while the title race is shaping up to be between those two, Bottas is not ready to play his team-mate’s wing man any time soon.

Asked if he expects the team to ask him to support Hamilton ‘sooner rather than later’ he said: “I’m not worried to be honest, not at all. I know there is a bit of a gap now, but it’s super early days. There’s no point starting to think about that.”

Bottas claimed pole last time out in Portugal only to be passed by both Hamilton and Verstappen in the race, but he is determined to recover his lost form and join the fight, rather than drop back and help.

“There are still 20 races to go, so a huge amount of points,” he added. “I am definitely not giving up on the goal for this year. I believe hard work will pay off, so I will keep working hard and keep believing. I know the results will come

“There’s been no clean races for me yet, there’s always something, a crash or an issue with a pit stop or whatever, so I am keen to have a clean race and battle for the win. And it’s going to be an epic battle, I’m definitely ready.”

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