Mercedes will decide whether to extend Valtteri Bottas’s contract for another season following the next two rounds of the championship.

Bottas, who joined the team in 2017, will be out of contract at the end of this year. The team announced a one-year extension on his previous contract in July last year, but team principal Toto Wolff said it was unusual for the team to make such an early decision.

“It is pretty unusual to announce drivers in July,” said Wolff in today’s FIA press conference. “If you want to take all the time you properly need to assess you can even drag it into the winter like we have seen in some other teams. Which was a standard in the past.

“For us it is not only about making the right decision for next year but looking ahead. This is why we agreed that we will take the decision in August and going forward, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we will announce it in August.”

If Bottas is confirmed for another season alongside Lewis Hamilton it will leave no room in the senior team for either of its leading junior drivers, Esteban Ocon and George Russell, to graduate.

However Wolff said he is prepared to help Ocon find a place with a rival team if needed.

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“We’re very happy with the development of Esteban and equally George. They are our most senior junior drivers and the aim is to make them ready for a seat in a Mercedes.

“As we all know it was an unfortunate situation last year that Esteban fell between the chairs. He could have chosen between two seats and in the end nothing came out.

“From our perspective everyone knows about his driving capabilities for Mercedes, for ourselves. Valtteri is showing some very strong performances and merits the seat.

“But equally Esteban has shown that in the past and is a great addition to the team. He contributes a lot behind closed doors, he drives the sim overnight on race weekends, he comes in here on Saturday and gives us input and he is a great kid overall. So putting a Mercedes young driver in the car would be interesting as well.

“Having said that, there is interest for Esteban among other teams and we need to carefully make a decision for ourselves and with the other interested parties, not only for our own benefit but also for Esteban’s benefit. If it would mean that we were taking a decision in favour of Valtteri it clearly also means that somebody else would continue to develop [Ocon] and would mean we would lose our hand for a year or two or more on Esteban, and these are the consequences of that decision.”

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2020 F1 season