Valtteri Bottas believes Sebastian Vettel still poses the biggest threat to Mercedes in the fight for this year’s Formula 1 world champ꧋ionship despite the Ferrari driver’s difficult start to the season.

Bottas currently occupies second place in the drivers’ꦚ standings after recording one win and two second-place finishes in the opening three races of the season. He sits six points back from Mercedes teammate and defending world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Despite a strong showing in winter 🐬testing, Ferrari has struggled to compete with Mercedes through the early pa🎃rt of the season.

Four-time world ꦯchampion Vettel has ဣonly recorded one podium finish in the opening three races, leaving him 31 points back from Hamilton in the standings.

However, Bottas still believes that Vettel poses the greatest threat to the Mercedes drivers in the fight for the championship this year, citing th𝄹e German’s added experience over teammate Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as a key factor.

“It’s tough to say at this point of the year. They all 🐽have potential to fight for the title,” Bottas said when asked which of the three drivers he saw as the bigge💯st rival to Mercedes.

“Sebastian is quiteꦉ experienced. They are now second in the constructors’ championship, Ch💃arles is very young and keen to beat Sebastian.

“But maybe because of Sebastian’𝐆s experience. If I had to choose one name, it would be h༺im.”

Ferrari’s fo🦄rm has fluctuated through the opening three races of the season. While the team could not compete with Mercedes in either Australia or China, reliability issues cost Leclerc a likely win in Bahrain.

"The team remains strong ⛎in terms of st✤raight-line speed, leaving Bottas wary of the threat the team still poses ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“I think in Melbꦑourne, Ferrari underperformed for whatever reason. They made a big step in terms꧃ of straight-line performance for Bahrain and that’s why they were quicker than us there,” Bottas said.

“In𝓡 China we made some steps forward, not really in terms of straight-line speed, but in corner performance, as 🍎we had new bits in the car and also made the tyres work better.

“This is a completely different track, so it’s dif🔯ficult to predict it, but we know there is a long straight here where Ferrari's going to be strong.

“Like we saw in the last race, we were very stro👍ng in the slow-speed corners, and that's good to see.”