Hamilton gives new team mate a big thumbs-up

Lewis Hamilton says he's getting on better with Valtteri Bottas than any other team mate he's had in Formula One.

Bottas joined the team just a month ago after Nico Rosberg's shock retirement at the end of 2016. The Finn was quick in the first pre-season test, ending the week with the fastest time.

"What I so far like about working with Valtteri is that it is all to do with the track - what we do on the circuit - and not outside," Hamilton told the official Formula One website this week.

"There are no games - there is complete transparency. I like that," he explained. "I feel we already have a better working relationship than I ever had with any team mate I had before.

"He wants to do the best thing that he can in his first year with the team. With me being here for quite a while now, I want to deliver and make sure that I give as much information so that he will learn.

"Valtteri seems to have settled in quite comfortably already in a short space of time and I know he’s working very hard with all the engineers to acclimatise.

"He’s got a great frame of mind, a lot of positive energy in him just in general. Excited to work with him.

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"We do our talking on the track," Hamilton added.

Far from being the quiet man of few words that he sometimes appears, Bottas was proving refreshingly different close-up.

"I have learned that he makes his own entertainment," Hamilton said. "He is very witty and comes out with some very funny things - which you would not really expect from a Finn!"

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.