Bottas set on making 2021 deal no-brainer for Mercedes

Jamie Woodhouse
Valtteri Bottas excited to see Mercedes' 2020 "weapon" for the first time.

Valtteri Bottas excited to see Mercedes' 2020 "weapon" for the first time.

The 2020 season will see Valtteri Bottas fighting for a new Mercedes deal once again, but he wants to make the decision a “no-brainer” for the team.

Ever since joining the Silver Arrows in 2017 to replace departing World Champion Nico Rosberg, Bottas’ future has been dictated by rolling one-year contracts.

And although unable to mount a title challenge in any of his three years, Bottas put in his strongest showing to date in 2019 to secure his future for another season.

Except for Charles Leclerc every driver in the top seats will be out of contract at the end of 2020, meaning the pressure on Bottas to perform will be higher than ever.

But the Finn hopes to perform to a standard where it would make retaining him for 2021 and hopefully beyond a “no-brainer”.

“That’s my aim, for sure,” Bottas told Autosport, regarding keeping his Mercedes drive. “Because I do enjoy working with this team. So, I try to do that for sure.

“But I think it still could be interesting, even from my side – I’m also running out of contract next year.

“I’ll be keen to see if there’s any other opportunities and whatever.

“We’ll see next year and you never know what’s going to happen in six months. Lots of things can happen, but it will be interesting.

“Obviously my aim is to make it a no-brainer decision for the team and hopefully more than one year on paper.

“You do want to be in as good a position as you can.

“Now it’s time to perform well until all the talks start.

“It’s always part of F1 and normal in this sport, but I just need to keep doing what I’m doing now and keep enjoying it and getting those results.”

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