Bottas wants smoother contract talks, and earlier resolution

Valtteri Bottas says he wants any discussions with Mercedes over a new deal to be handled smoother, and earlier, than in 2019.

Bottas has been on rolling one-year contracts since joining Mercedes in 2017 and last season it was confirmed during the August break that he would remain with the team for 2020.

But that followed on from speculation over whether Mercedes would retain Bottas or promote then-reserve Esteban Ocon, with team boss Toto Wolff admitting both were under consideration.

Wolff later conceded he could have handled the situation better while Bottas felt the uncertainty had an impact on his on-track displays.

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“I think it’s no secret that my contract ends at the end of this season so for sure you want to start talking quite early on,” said Bottas.

“But at this point of the year there’s no point really, it’s too early, and we’re pretty busy focusing on performance.

“When it’s time to talk things openly I’m sure we both ways learned about last year and how we communicated, so for sure it can be done a bit smoother, with less things happening around, headlines etc, but as I said it’s early.”

On what both parties realised through 2019’s discussions Bottas said: “For sure I learned, and the team learned, about how we handled that.

“There was a bit too much unnecessary talk outside the team, everything should have just been kept internal. I think it makes things easier.

“And also when the decisions are made, if you have to drag it on for August and September then it kinds of builds up and becomes more of a distraction.

“If things are done a couple of months earlier than that was, it makes it a lot more simple, because speculation only ramp up. We can do something before that, but let’s see.”