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

Bottas has emerged as the only likely contender to Ham🦄ilton 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 straight victories has allowed Hami𓃲lton to pull out a 36-point lead at the top of the drivers’ c🌠hampionship, leaving Bottas in need of a change in fortunes if he is to stop the gap growing any bigger.

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

However, Bottas stre🎃ssed he is not looking to M𓆏ercedes’ rivals to help his own title cause.

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

“I think about my own per🌼formance and try to be ahead, try and win the race, that’s the best thing for me to focus on.

“Whoever would be between us, if ther🌳e is one, would always be a bonus.”

Bottas made no secret of the need to start closi꧂ng the gap to Hamilton in the standings to stop his teammate esca🦂ping 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 ෴weeke꧋nds in some of them,” Bottas said.

“I’m glad there🌄 are still 13 to go and, yes, I think the next few races are going to be really important ꦛfor me.

“If I look that far ahead, w🌊hich 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 stay in the ch꧅ampionship fight. That’s a fact.

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