Valtteri Bottas: If I hit targets, there will be no contract worries

Valtteri Bottas is remaining bullish about the prospect of landing an extension to his Mercedes contract for the 2021 F1 season despite rumours linking more than just Sebastian Vettel to his seat.

Earlier this week the Finn appeared to put a full stop on talk that Mercedes is considering taking advantage of Sebastian Vettel’s upcoming availability, saying ‘I got a pretty straight message that no, they are not considering Seb, so I said fine, no worries then’.

However, a threat still remains from highly rated Mercedes junior George Russell, especially in light of the uncertainty over the future of his current Williams F1 team which could prompt the title-winners to consider him for an imminent promotion.

Despite this, Bottas says that as long as he does his talking on track and makes the step to challenge team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the 2020 F1 title, he has no concerns that he won’t be retained for at least another year.

“I have that one single target in my mind for the season and that’s it, take all the other things away," he told F1.com in an Instagram live chat. "If I can follow all those targets, performance targets, and if our team can perform well, there’s going to be no worries about any contract."

With F1 having now confirmed the first eight races of the 2020 season in what is set to be a condensed campaign, Bottas says remaining error-free will become more important than ever.

“Minimising every mistake and maximising every single race weekend is going to be the key, because every mistake is going to cost more than in a normal championship with more than 20 races,” he continued.

“So just consistency and being on it, that’s going to be the key and we need to keep on, not to be overdoing things, and trusting your own skills and the team around you. I’m sure we can do that.”