Valtteri Bottas needs to keep up his run of good form to avoid serving as Lewis Hamilton’s number 2.
That is the view of Felipe Massa, who for the last several years was Bottas’ teammate at Williams.
But Bottas has switched to Mercedes for 2017, and in Russia won his first grand prix, closing the points gap to Hamilton to just 10 points.
Massa says the Finn now needs to keep that gap small.
"To be in a position to compete with Hamilton for the title, he must finish ahead of him in the next two or three races," the Brazilian veteran told the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
"If Lewis gets 20 or 25 points ahead of him, then he (Bottas) will have to work for him for the rest of the year. It’s that way because Raikkonen will also work for Vettel this year," Massa added.