Bottas won't "waste energy" on Hamilton mind games

Nico Rosberg admitted that he put a lot of effort into trying to get under Hamilton's skin as part of his strategy to defeat his then-teammate, before retiring after becoming world champion in 2016.

However, his replacement Bottas insists that he will just focus on himself and winning races and not try to exploit any weaknesses in the man who could be his main title rival.

"I just want to win as many races as I can and that way the championship, I don't need to change anything else what I do," said the Finn.

"I'm not going to start for example playing any mental games or anything in the team, because I think like this it works well. It is up to me how I perform on track, and I'll decide if I'll show muscle when it's needed.

"Every driver has weaknesses, that's how it goes, but rather than focusing too much on him I'm going to spend my energy and focus on myself and my performance on track, and if I perform at the level that I'm aiming to every single race, I hope that will do the job.

"I'm not going to start waste my energy playing any games."

Bottas says he's put a lot of effort into finding more consistent form in 2018, and into addressing the areas where he struggled last year.

"I've definitely been trying to focus a lot of my effort and time during December and January in the meetings I had with the team running through 2017, and especially regarding the races and conditions and the sessions where I didn't perform on the level I should have," he said.

"I've learned a lot from that. But also my average races, or good races, I still want to make them even better.

"I'm definitely focusing more on my weaknesses, I think that's always the best way to go, but also you need to remember your strengths and how to use them.

"I think for me it was tough last year because I really wanted to perform after the August break and that's when there were a few difficult races.

"So that was a pretty tough time which I learned from massively."