Valtteri Bottas needs a miracle to deny Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton a sixth Formula One title but the Finn is not completely ruling it out. Hamilton has a 64-point lead with four races remaining and will clinch the crown in Mexico on Sunday if he scores 14 points more than Bottas. That may be a tall order, given that the Briton has managed that only once this season and Mexico has not favored Mercedes in the last two years, but the chances of the battle going on beyond the following weekend in Texas are slim. Bottas made clear on Thursday, however, that he had not given up all hope. "I'm not superstitious in any way really but crazy things can always happen, I believe," he told reporters at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez when asked whether he believed in miracles. "I've seen many different crazy things. You never know," he added. Bottas won the previous race in Japan, his third victory of the campaign, and arrived in Mexico refreshed after a break in the Seychelles. The permutations for Sunday are multiple but Hamilton must finish on the podium at the very least to have a chance of wrapping up things. "It's getting for sure tougher in each race," said Bottas. "But there's no point saying it's over because it isn't. It is when it actually happens. "Obviously, it's a bit of a longshot, if I'm being realistic but we'll just focus on individual races and this weekend, like in Japan, really try to do the best I can and try to win the race." Mercedes have struggled in Mexico for the past two seasons, but Bottas expressed hope those problems might not reappear on Sunday. "Last year we had a really difficult race, we were struggling a lot with the tire dropoff. I don't know how many pitstops we did," he said. "The tyres are slightly harder this year, which could help, and it is a different car and very different setup...what we saw in Japan was we have a good race car and hopefully that will be the case on Sunday again." The Finn said Mercedes, who had no driver on the podium in Mexico last year, had understood and analyzed last year's problems. "We think we know what we should do and we try to fix and do better than last year," he added. "It was really related to the tires and which kind of temperature window you operate them and make them last." Meanwhile, Haas are talking to Polish driver Robert Kubica about a test and simulator role, the US-owned Formula One team said on Thursday. Kubica, 34, has already announced he is leaving Williams at the end of the season. "We are speaking," Haas team principal Guenther Steiner told reporters at the Mexican Grand Prix. "We were speaking about a role in our team as a test driver, as we need to develop the simulator still. "We are at a decent point but we need to make the next step as well. He is for sure one of the most qualified to do that. That's what we're discussing." Any deal would likely also include an unspecified number of outings in first free practice at race weekends. "Simulator drivers all have in-car time as they need to correlate the sim (simulator) work with what the car is doing otherwise there's no point," said Steiner. Haas, currently ninth of the 10 teams, have confirmed their 2020 lineup of Frenchman Romain Grosjean and Danish driver Kevin Magnussen. Kubica has scored Williams sole point of the season, although generally out-qualified and beaten by British rookie teammate George Russell in races. The Pole made his race comeback this year after suffering a near-fatal rally crash in 2011 that partially severed his right forearm. His sponsor, Polish oil refiner OKN Orlen, has said it intends to stay in Formula One with him. Haas no longer has a title sponsor after parting company last month with the Rich Energy drink brand. "I hardly see myself just being closed in a dark room just doing laps in a simulator," Kubica told reporters when asked about a switch to Haas. "I'm not excluding it but it would have to be a combined program, which is why it is taking time." — Reuters
