Wolff prefers Hamilton to Bottas: "Deserves to be world champion"

This week there were rumours that there was a lot of unrest at Mercedes about the performance of Valtteri Bottas and that he would be replaced by George Russell before the end of the season. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff responds to the rumours.

Bottas is not ready

Writing in the Daily Mail, an anonymous source at Mercedes reported the unease over the Finnish driver. "He's not ready, which was made clearer by the work we saw Russell do in Bahrain," said the Mercedes engineer in question.

Bottas is currently driving his fifth season for Mercedes and although he occasionally manages to trump Lewis Hamilton, the results don't lie. In recent years Hamilton has won 44 races and Bottas only nine.

Wolff responds to rumours

At Sport24 Auto Wolff responded to rumours that Russell would be coming to Mercedes this season. "Nonsense. Bottas is really good, he can compete with anyone in the field," Wolff defends his driver. "And time after time he is able to drive faster than Lewis, like recently in qualifying at Portimao."

Yet Wolff does have a preference for this year's world champion. "Lewis deserves to be world champion because of his consistency," he said. Whether Hamilton will still drive for Mercedes next year is still not certain. "We are now concentrating on the championship and must not take our eyes off the ball. If there is time at some point, we will talk about the future, with which we have not yet begun."