Valtteri Bottas won’t be looking to rival teams Ferrari and Red Bull to ꧙help him in his Fꦿormula 1 title fight against Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, instead focusing on his own performance after a difficult run of races.

Bottas has emerged as the only likely contender to Hami✨lton in this year’s title race after winning two of the first four races, with Ferrari and Red Bull struggling to compete with Mercedes on a regular basis.

A run of four stra💙ight victories has allowed Hamilton to pull out a 36-point lead at the top of the drivers’ championship, leaving Bottas in need of a change in fortunes if he is to stop th♍e gap growing any bigger.

To make any meaningful points gains, Bottas is relying on either a DNF or slip-up fro🗹m Hamilton and on Ferrari and Red Bull’s drivers to finish ahead of his teammate.

However, Bottas st🔜ressed he is not looking to 𒊎Mercedes’ rivals to help his own title cause.

“I don’t think of it that way,” Bottas said.

“I think about my own performance an💯d try to be ahead, try and win the𒈔 race, that’s the best thing for me to focus on.

“Whoever🌃 would be between ♍us, if there is one, would always be a bonus.”

Bottas made no secret of the need to start closing the gap to Hamilton in the standings to stop his teammate escaping with a🐻 big lead, with the Finn acknowledging a lot rested on the run of upcoming races.

“For sure every race weekend is important and, unfortunately, I have not been able to execute perfect weekends in so🐎me of them,” Bottas said.

“I’m gla🦩d there are still 13 to go and, yes, I think the next few races are going to be really important🃏 for me.

“If I 🍸look that far ahead, which I normally don’t do – I don’t think about it at all – the fact is that I need to start closing the gap if I want to ജstay in the championship fight. That’s a fact.

“But how to achieve it, for me it’s bet♕ter to focus on today, on the things I have to do with the engineers, and take it lap by lap.”