Valtteri Bottas shot down media hypothesis on Thursday that he might be changed as Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate halfway via the season and mentioned such speak was simply a part of being in Formulation One.

The Finn is out of contract on the finish of the yr and already 37 factors behind championship chief Hamilton after three races.

Whereas seven occasions world champion Hamilton is preventing an in depth title battle with Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen, who’s eight factors behind the Briton, Bottas is just fourth general.

He has two third locations and retired in Imola after a collision with Mercedes-backed Williams driver George Russell, touted as a doable alternative, who was making an attempt to overhaul for ninth place.

The Each day Mail this week prompt Bottas might be axed and quoted an nameless Mercedes engineer saying there was “some unrest” on the manufacturing unit.

“I do know that I am not going to get replaced in the midst of the season,” Bottas informed reporters on the Spanish Grand Prix when requested whether or not he discovered the studies distracting.

“As a group, we do not try this. I’ve a contract for this yr and I believe there’s just one group that does that type of factor in F1 and we’re not that (group),” he added.

“So no stress from my facet and I understand how issues are. There’s all the time bullshit round, that is a part of the game.”

Purple Bull have stood out for mid-season switches lately, shifting drivers between their two groups.

Verstappen made a profitable debut with Purple Bull Racing, the vitality drink model’s senior outfit, in Barcelona in 2016 after shifting up from Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) and has seen a string of group mates come and go since then.

Mercedes group boss Toto Wolff recognised after final weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix {that a} sensor failure had hampered Bottas within the battle for second place.

“We let him down with the engine that went into a security mode,” he mentioned then. “Like many occasions it may have labored for Valtteri and we have been pushing onerous and proceed to help him and see what he’s able to doing in Barcelona.”

Requested whether or not he anticipated to be at Mercedes subsequent yr, Bottas replied: “I do not know. It is early days. I have not considered it actually.

“In the mean time I do not care. I am simply specializing in this yr.”