He has yet to win a race this season and he's seen as Lewis Hamilton's perfect 'wingman', but Valtteri Bottas must trust that his time will come says Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
At the start of the 2018 season, the Finn was hoping to pick up where he had left off in Abu Dhabi at the end of last year, a race winner who could challenge for the world title.
Bottas' efforts have come up short however, hit by unfortunate circumstances in a few cases, like in Baku, or undermined by the superior pace of his Silver Arrows team mate.
The relative under-performance has left the 29-year-old with a 110-point deficit to Hamilton, and out of the running for the world title, a state of affairs which Wolff sympathises with.
"For every racing driver, that’s a very difficult situation to be in because everything you dream about and everything you work for is winning the World Championship," Wolff said.
"When you realise you’re not in the hunt any more, that’s very difficult to handle. But Valtteri has shown that he has the speed, the talent and the work ethic to win in a Mercedes."
Wolff appreciates the Finn's talent that has earned him three career wins in F1 so far, and believes his support role going forward will take nothing away from his merits or his potential to eventually emerge as a consistent race winner.
“He has always been a team player and that is one of his greatest character traits," insists the Mercedes boss.
"Valtteri could have won races this year, but the odds were against him. However luck isn’t just a one-way street, and I know that Valtteri has every ingredient it needs to win at this level.
"He just needs to keep working hard to improve and trust that the tables will turn for him."
And there is perhaps no better place for those tables to swerve around than Sochi, the scene last season of Bottas' maiden Grand Prix triumph!
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