Valtteri Bottas has laughed off reports that he is set to be sacked by the Cadillac team and replaced by Colton Herta.
Bottas returned to Formula 1 after a year away as one of the drivers for new team Cadillac, partnering Sergio Pérez.
Despite being backmarkers, the contrast in their form has been notable so far, which led to social media reports after the Canadian Grand Prix that Cadillac might be looking to swap out Bottas for American reserve driver Herta.
Cadillac has Herta doing Formula 2 this year to prepare him for a drive down the line -- something the team has always been open about, although that is a much longer-term plan.
He does not currently have enough super licence points to race in F1.
Haas driver Esteban Ocon faced similar social media speculation between Miami and Canada -- leading to an expletive-filled reply two weeks ago -- and on Thursday Bottas became the latest to brush off swirling rumours about his own future.
“It’s part of the sport, it’s not the first time I face those kind of rumours, but it’s a bit of a shame that somebody just makes up complete bulls---,” Bottas said.
“But that’s normal in this sport, and I know my situation, [the] team knows my situation, they support me 100%, so that’s why from my side it was okay in the end.”
The gap to Perez was especially alarming in Montreal two weeks ago, but Bottas suggested he and the team understand why.
“I caught up with the team last week about it,” he said. “We could see issues, both on the [power unit] side and the car build side, that’s as much as I can give you. But we can see reasons, which is good to see ... we need to keep working on the quality, on how we build the car, how we fit all the parts, and so on.”
