Valtteri Bottas sayꦓs his focus for the 2018 Formula 1 season is simply “to win as many races as I can” and let his Mercedes future be decided by his results.

Having secured a one-year contract extension at Mercedes for the new campaign, Bottas faces a make or br༺eak year to secure his long-term future at the German manufacturer with Mercedes youngster🐽🧸s Esteban Ocon and Pascal Wehrlein looking to climb the ranks.

With Daniel Ricciardo’s future also unconfirmed beyond this season with the Australian hunting a title-contending package for 2019, Bottas is aware he holds on the most hotly-contested race seats on the F1 grid after being the 11^th-hour replacement🌠 for Nico Rosberg after his shock retirement at the end of 2016.

Bottas says he isn’t thinking a🎉bout his long-term future at Mercedes yet and wants to concentrate on producing best results in the opening rounds of the 2018 season to be a title fighter.

“The best thing for me is to win many races, as many as I can, and that’s going to be the target,” Bottas said. “I’m going to go into every weekend trying to be at my best, trying to use everything that I have learned, trying to perform at a good level and that means trying to battle with Hamiꦛlton, trying to beat him – that’s my job. That’s it, it’s very straightforward.

“How to do it? Of course, there are multiple things I can do, there are still🦋 areas where I can improve and I need to work on those.

“I need to trust myself, go💦 flat out and that’s all I can do and not to think about too much.”

Last year Bottas finished a distant third place behind F1 champion and teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari🎃's Sebastian Vettel but enjoyed a strong end to the year with two pole positions and a race win in the final two rounds.