Bottas results not reflective of current performance - Wolff

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says Valtteri Bottas' results do not properly reflect his true performance, with bad luck often undermining his efforts.

In Baku back in April, Bottas was on track for a possible win when a puncture forces him into retirement. And last Sunday at Paul Ricard, it was a clumsy move by Sebastian Vettel that put him out of contention.

Hopefully, next weekend's Austrian Grand Prix will deal him a better hand of cards.

"We're going to Austria leading both the Constructors' and the Drivers' Championships," says Wolff in the team's preview, "but we know that we will once again get every detail right if we want a chance to win the race.

"And in Valtteri's case in particular, he needs luck to go his way a little more than we have seen in recent races, because he hasn't had the results that his performances should have earned."

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Despite his wretched luck, Bottas appears to be on course for an extension of his contract with Mercedes, a piece of good news that will likely be announced before next week's British Grand Prix.

In the interim, on the back of Lewis Hamilton's dominate run in France; Mercedes travels to the mountains of Styria as outright favourites, but as usual, Wolff isn't taking anything for granted.

"The results of the last races show that it's all about the details - this season more than ever," he says.

"Marginal gains defined the outcome of the race in both Montreal and Le Castellet and you need to get every detail right in order to win.

"On paper, we should be in a good position for Austria; we had the fastest car in France and we have shown good performances in Spielberg in the past.

"But you cannot take anything for granted this season, the performance of the top-three teams is too closely matched.

"This makes the 2018 season a great spectacle for the fans and an exciting challenge for the teams. We need to keep pushing hard and keep bringing performance to the track."

Wolff also underlines the relatively short length of Austria's Red Bull Ring, where congestion can sometimes set in at the most frantic time: during qualifying.

"The relatively short lap in Austria makes the circuit challenging as it closes up the field in qualifying and will make the margins even tighter.

"We will aim to hit the ground running as qualifying is particularly important because overtaking has historically been tricky despite the long straights - although we need to wait and see if that changes this year with an additional DRS zone."

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