Mercedes Formula 1🐈 boss Toto Wolff says he is worried a frustrating 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 c🍒ontention himself following a difficult start to the year, finished a distant fifth place for the fourth successive race 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 campaign at Yas Mar๊ina.

“He wasꦦ really good until Baku,” Wolff t꧑old Channel 4.

“I think he would have won the racඣe there without the puncture and he would have been in the lead of the champion𝐆ship.

“After a long conservation I believe that when you have no shot anymore of the championship, an♏d you know yo🤡u 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 𝐆was forced into a two-stop strategy in Abu Dhabi after slipping 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 of 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 s𒅌top, so we do🌊n’t know whether there was a serious concern on the car that made the performance drop, or whether it’s just gone.”