Valtteri Bottas heads into his final five races with Mercedes this weekend in Mexico City, but the Finn vows to remain a team player to the end.
While his teammate Lewis Hamilton is locked in a fierce title battle with Max Verstappen, Bottas is the Briton's most precious ally. And the Finn will fulfill that role when required although his first priority is to win.
"If there’s an opportunity for me to help Lewis with the points, like stealing points from Max then I’ll do it because I’m not realistically in the championship anymore," he said.
"I’m a team player and I’ll take one for the team if needed, but my first priority is always to try and win.
"Everyone is motivated, we know we’re in a close fight and we can’t do any mistakes – we can’t afford them. But at the same time I feel that everyone is still keeping the nerves in good shape and everything seems under control.
"There’s obviously excitement because every point matters so much but motivated is the word I’d say sums up every team member."
Looking ahead at this weekend's round of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a venue that should theoretically favor Red Bull, Bottas feels Mercedes will be "in a better place" this year in Mexico City.
"For Mexico, we know it’s been usually a bit of a weakness for us," he said. "And it feels like quite a big chunk [of that] has been, in the recent years, from the power unit with high altitude.
"But I think we’ve been able to optimise a lot since, so I would expect us to be in better place than in the recent years."
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