Wolff: 'It's like Federer and Nadal between the drivers'

Lewis Hamilton's well-disposed attitude towards Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas is clearly a departure from the cold and distant relationship which prevailed with Nico Rosberg last year.

It's all for the better at Mercedes although that could quickly change with circumstances or a contentious on-track contentious by one driver over the other.

Toto Wolff insists however that the association between Hamilton and Bottas isn't weighed down by past rivalries or any sort of 'baggage', as the Austrian puts it.

"The Nico and Lewis situation was very special because they go back a long time and there was a lot of baggage," said Wolff.

"Some of it we know, some of it we'll never know, and it got quite tense and quite controversial at times. I don't feel that same stress in the relationship between the two of them.

"Between Vettel, Valtteri and Lewis I feel a little bit of a Federer-Nadal situation, there is a lot of respect for the competitor. I hope it can last."

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