Valtteri Bottas is confident he is doing enough to retain his drive at Mercedes next year, even though he is 59 points off teammate Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' standings.
Bottas was hoping to mount a title challenge in his second season with Mercedes but a combination of bad luck and reliability issues have seen him miss out on several opportunities. Most notable was a potential victory in Azerbaijan, but a collision with Sebastian Vettel in France and a hydraulics problem in Austria have also seen him drop valuable points.
Bottas doesn't have a contract for 2019, but it is believed he has done enough to fend off a threat from Daniel Ricciardo for his Mercedes drive next year.