Wolff: Bottas knows he needs to perform better at start of season

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed that Valtteri Bottas "knows" that he has to do better at the start of next season for the Silver Arrows.

The Mercedes driver is winless so far in 2018 - and the run without a win has resulted in Bottas falling too far away from Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton and the Finn has played a "support-role" for the latter in recent Grands Prix.

Bottas claimed pole position for the Russian Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago - and would almost have certainly clinched his first win of the season in Sochi, but was ordered by his team to concede position to the championship leader, Hamilton.

This has been a frustrating season personally for Bottas, and Wolff has said that he is aware that he needs to perform better at the start of the 2019 season to avoid falling too far behind his team-mate yet again.

"In Sochi, we sat down right after the race, and (Valtteri) said, 'We don't need to discuss anything. If I was in your shoes... I would do exactly the same. I comprehend that I need to perform better at the beginning of the season to put myself in a situation that I can actually go for the championship title and I haven't done that, so I respect your calls'," Wolff explained to Formula One's official website.