There's a compelling reason why Lewis Hamilton wants Valtteri Bottas to remain at Mercedes next year, according to former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer.
Despite collecting his first three career wins last year, the Finn has mostly played second fiddle o his four-time world champion team mate.
And according to former Renault F1 driver turned pundit Jolyon Palmer, that's exactly how Hamilton wants to keep things in the future.
"I think he’ll be very happy with it," Palmer explained on BBC Radio 5 Live.
"It’s a very similar situation to what we’ve got at Ferrari where Sebastian Vettel is kind of the No 1 driver, whether officially or not, and he’s voiced his support for Kimi Raikkonen to stay there.
"When you have a situation like this in the team, you have one guy that is the No 1 then they don’t want the second guy to be as quick, it’s natural.
"He’s a competitor and he can also be helpful in a title run-in."
While Bottas' future at the Silver Arrows outfit is uncertain beyond this season, Lewis Hamilton is expected to extend his lavish multi-year contract with Mercedes any day now.
"Both Hamilton and Bottas are out of contract at the end of the year but I don’t think Lewis will be worried about it one bit because he can go anywhere he wants," said palmer.
"And I’m sure if Mercedes are quick and he has the desire to keep going then he’ll stay.
"To be honest, he probably won’t mind who his team-mate is because he’s four-time World Champion, could be five at the end of this year.
"He’s got a lot of confidence, a lot of natural talent and in the end for him it doesn’t matter."
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