Toto Wolff admits that he is looking at the 2019 market before deciding on the future of Valtteri Bottas. Bottas signed for Mercedes at the start of the year, replacing Nico Rosberg who retired after winning the world championship last November.
Bottas has done a fair job in the short time he's been a part of the Silver Arrows family, taking two pole positions and two wins. However, when he was signed, it was only on a one-year deal, with boss Wolff revealing that they are looking into the longer picture before signing Bottas.
Some insiders therefore believe Mercedes will ink a new one-year contract with Bottas to fill the gap for 2018: "The market will be quite interesting in 2019 so you have to plan ahead," boss Wolff told Bild newspaper.
On the other side of the garage, Lewis Hamilton ha been having a tough couple of weeks, failing to make it onto the podium in the last two races. Wolff says that Mercedes is letting the Brit down with matters that he can't control: "We let Hamilton down with the headrest in Baku, we let him down with the gearbox here Austria. Now it's time to strike back."
Fergal Walsh
I can understand why they're examining the bigger picture, but Bottas is a race winner and possible title contender now. They probably won't be able to land a big signing for next year anyway, so why are they hesitating?
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f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Hes done a good enough job to be kept on