Wolff: Bottas was catching Russell before the pit stop incident

Bottas won just two races during the 2020 season and came under pressure after George Russell impressed for Mercedes in place of Lewis Hamilton at the Sakhir Grand Prix.

The Finn beat Russell to pole position on the shortened layout at the Bahrain International Circuit but was overtaken off the line and had to run in second place for the entire first stint.

Russell went into the pits first, with the 31-year-old opting to run longer, but the strategy gamble did not pay off when a safety car saw both drivers brought back into the pits.

The subsequent stop was a disaster for both drivers and they fell down the field, but Russell's performance across the weekend was more than enough to lead to questions being asked about the Finn.

However, coming to the defence of his driver, Wolff argued that Bottas was catching Russell during the second stint.

“What we need to look at, and what we need to work out collaboratively, is that for drivers, it's all about winning the world championship,” he told Motorsport.com.

“And when that has been decided, we need to find out how to keep the energy levels high. But the margin between winning and losing, between hero and zero, is so small in this sport.

“If he [Bottas] would have led the way in Bahrain 2 [Sakhir GP] and won the race, nobody would have criticized Valtteri. And that was down to a good or less good start. He was also catching up in the race before our unfortunate pitstop incident.

“So we mustn't swing between exuberance and depression in terms of our judgement on drivers, but kind of see the average and help the drivers to have confidence, to develop their abilities and achieve sustainable performances."