Wolff spoke with Bottas after he didn't 'shine' against Russell

With a new teammate next to him, Valtteri Bottas was under a lot of pressure during the Sakhir Grand Prix. During his time at Mercedes, he is often accused of not being a match for Lewis Hamilton. He had to prove to George Russell that others wouldn't do better.

Already in qualifying, however, Russell showed that he was at least as fast and in the race, he blasted past Bottas at the start. Afterwards, Bottas admitted that this was a very bad weekend for him. Of course, it could have been a fluke, but still, Bottas was called in by Toto Wolff.

Bottas in doubt for 2022

"I need to talk to him [Bottas] and his crew for a moment, but yeah, he did not shine today," was Toto Wolff's brief but telling response to Sky Germany. Although Wolff also indicated this week that replacing Bottas with Russell next year is 'unrealistic', the Finn will surely have to fear for his place before 2022.

In any case, Bottas does not think he could have done much else last weekend. "I think George also pretty much started with Lewis's set-up for the weekend, so there were not massive things to do. He's got his engineers, so for sure, they know what to do with the car. I didn't feel like there was a massive responsibility, because if there was anything I could change and give directions, I was trying to do that," Bottas is quoted by Express.