Valtteri Bottas may be shunted out of contention for the 2017 world championship.
That is the view of Mika Salo, who thinks his Finnish countryman’s strong opening campaign at Mercedes hit a major hurdle at Spa last weekend.
"It was not a good weekend for Valtteri," Salo, who was the FIA driver steward in Belgium, told Iltalehti newspaper.
"It would have been really important for the championship for him to have won there. Instead it was a demonstration that Vettel and Hamilton are in fact a step ahead."
Former F1 driver Salo says it is not definitely over for Bottas, but Mercedes will eventually need to put all its eggs in a single basket.
"It can still go either way, as a complete failure (for a driver) can turn it around completely," he said.
"But successes for Valtteri will mean points taken away from Hamilton, while Ferrari puts every point in Vettel’s bag."