Bottas shrugs off 'career killer' warning

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New Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has said he's not concerned about comments suggesting that going up against Lewis Hamilton in 2017 could prove to be a 'career killer' for the Finn.

Hamilton's father and former manager Anthony Hamilton said this week that "Anybody who goes up against Lewis needs to have planned their career correctly because it could be a career-ending move when you go up against Lewis."

But Bottas said that the prospect of having the three-time world champion as a team mate in 2017 didn't worry him.

"I wouldn't want to be my teammate, either," he told Finnish broadcaster MTV this week.

"Let's wait and see. The season starts soon so we'll see how it goes," the 27-year-old added.

Lauda: Regulation changes should help Bottas

Bottas has joined the reigning constructors champions Mercedes for 2017 after serving four years at Williams. He was signed last month as a late replacement for Nico Rosberg, who announced his retirement from Formula 1 just five days after winning the 2016 world championship.

Currently signed to just a one year contract at Mercedes, Bottas will be keenly aware that he has to make an immediate impact at the team and deliver quick results if the team are to be persuaded not to look at signing the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, who will both be free agents in 2018.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.