Former Mercedes driver and Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg reckons Hungary was the turning point in Mercedes' decision over its 2020 driver line-up and believes Esteban Ocon will replace Valtteri Bottas.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has already admitted it's a straight battle between Bottas and Ocon for the second seat alongside Lewis Hamilton and insists one bad race won't decide it, but Rosberg believes the Finn's current form isn't good enough after he finished eighth in Hungary on the back of a DNF in Germany.
"Bottas was up against the two best wheel-to-wheel racers out there in Verstappen and Hamilton," Rosberg said in his post-Hungary video. "Hamilton just drove round the outside of him at Turn 2, so really destroyed him there.
"Then he [Bottas] was unlucky when [Charles] Leclerc chopped him and damaged his front-wing and then that was it, the end of the race, the end of the weekend for him.
"I would have a tendency to say that's the end of his Mercedes race seat as well. The last two races have been such a struggle for him and I think they're going to put Ocon in the car.
"I don't think they've quite fully decided themselves yet, so it's a very fine line, but I think [they're leaning] a little bit toward Ocon, but let's see.
"He [Hamilton] is definitely on for his sixth title, because Bottas has kind of lost the plot and Verstappen just doesn't have the car despite driving amazingly."
Rosberg however wants to see Hamilton go up against a former team-mate in the form of Fernando Alonso, adding: "I think we should start a petition to get Alonso in that second Mercedes car. Bring him out of retirement, bring Alonso back and put him in the damn Mercedes next to Lewis. How cool would that be? It'd be epic stuff."
