Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says he is worried a frustratin💫g 2018 campaign﷽ has taken its toll on Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas, who was forced to play a supporting role to teammate Lewis Hamilton’s championship bid after falling out of title contention himself following a difficult start to the year, finished a distant fifth place for the fourth successive ra🌄ce in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Finn ultimately slipped to fifth in the drivers’ standings and became the first Mercedes driver since Michael Schumacher in 2012 to fail to win a race during a season, while Hamilton registered his 11th victory of the campai🔜gn at Yas Marina.

“He was really good un😼til Baku,” Wolff told Channel 4.

“I think he would have won the rဣace there without the puncture and he would have been in🦂 the lead of the championship.

“After a long conservation🥃 I believe that when you have no shot anymore of the champio🍷nship, and you know you need to give up, it kind of damages you mentally.

“I hope it’s not the case. He says not, he’s a strong Finn and a warrior but now over the winter we have to pick him up again and get him back to a good place.”

Bottas was forced into a two-stop strategy in Abu Dhabi after s♕lipping behind Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, having suffered a sudden drop-off in performance.

Wolff revealed Mercedes disovered an issue on the rear right brakes oꦓf Bottas’ W09, which he says instigated the second stop.

“On the pitstop something went wrong and when he went out we saw something was not right on 💟the rear right brake, something was not perfect,” Wolff explained.

“We have data and it was a safety issue which is why we did the pit stop, so we don’t know whether ther🤡e was a serious concern on the car that made the performance drop, or whether it’s just gone.”