In an online interview with UBS on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton said he was unhappy with the current practice of sharing data among team mates.
The Brit argued that a driver's hard work and choices should remain exclusive, and that there was no reason to make life easier for a newcomer or incoming team mate.
The comments apparently struck a dissonant chord at Mercedes with its start driver clarifying his comments on Twitter this morning.
"I wish to clarify, I have not hit out at my team at all," he wrote.
"My point on data sharing is solely my feelings about the sport in general. It has been my feeling since the day I started F1 and still is 10 years later.
"There is zero problems in my team, zero problems with Bottas."
It's actually hard to follow Hamilton's stance on a sport which has a crucial team element baked into it by manufacturers spending huge budgets on achieving success for their brand.
Sharing data will indeed perhaps profit the driver sitting on the other side of the garage, but it also helps move an entire team forward, for everyone's benefit.
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