Bottas: I'd like to know what I'm doing for the next two years

Speaking ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Bottas said, "This year I have been meeting more or less my targets with the performance for the beginning of the year. I've been able to really continue good performances from the end of last year."

"And there have been no weekends that I have been way off the pace, like there were a few last year. So I feel I have learned from those, and need to continue my development."

"There are never things that you can't learn more, so I still hope I keep improving. There's been quite mixed races, and the end results haven't been quite there, that I feel would have been possible with the pace we've had."

Bottas is waiting on talks with his team to extend his deal beyond 2018 and is angling for a longer deal with the Silver Arrows.

Earlier in the week, he said in an interview, "I would like to stay with this team, hopefully for a long time. That is my target. As long as I keep performing like I've been performing this year so far, naturally it should be OK, all good."

"I always kind of had one-year deals, so I would naturally like to know at least for the next two years what I'm going to do," said Bottas who is currently on the second one-year deal with Mercedes.

Meanwhile, team chief Toto Wolff is keeping an eye on the driver he mentored since his early days at Williams and so far so good it appears, "Valtteri has been upping his game through the last races and has been very solid indeed and that proves us right with our decision back in the day.

"Having the two drivers close to each other in terms of performance levels, and equally respecting each other and racing each other fair is the best case," added Wolff.

Bottas heads to the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, where his best result was the fourth place he scored last year. In four previous attempts, he failed to score points at the historic street venue.