Valtteri Bottas says being called a "wingman" by Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff "hurts", but admitted maybe it was time to discuss him taking a support role for team-mate Lewis Hamilton due to the large gap.
Hamilton claimed a dominant win in Hungary after running away in the lead whilst Bottas held up both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, suggesting the team used him to create a buffer between Hamilton and championship rival Vettel.
After the race, Bottas' boss Wolff described him as a "great wingman", but the Finn didn't take too kindly to that label.
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"Well, first of all 'wingman' hurts," he told Sky Sports. "Second of all, I don’t see any positives in this race for me."
Bottas is now 81 points adrift of Hamilton in the standings and now has an outside chance of the title, whereas Hamilton and Vettel are split by 24 points – less than a race win – after two strong consecutive weekends for Hamilton, which has resulted in him overturn an eight-point deficit.
Bottas suggested it might be the right time for him and Mercedes to discuss his role this season and whether or not he should be playing a secondary role.
"I think we need to speak after this race. We are over half way through the year. The points gap is big [between Bottas and Hamilton] so for sure the team will decide at some point."
The 28-year-old described his race as "a mess" after he collided with Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages.
"I tried to defend the best I could, as aggressive as I could but it just ended up being a bit of a mess in the end with a broken front-wing and everything.
“With Sebastian he had a good run into Turn 2, we had a bit of a battle in Turn 1. I still had my nose inside into Turn 2, he was on the outside, he turned in very early and there was nowhere to go so we touched and I was the only one who got damage. Fair enough, I think racing incident.
"With Daniel [Ricciardo] pretty much a similar thing but I was more next to him on the inside. I had half of my front-wing so I was locking up as well. I’m sure he saw that I was going quite quick into the corner but he still turned in and then we touched."
