Hamilton gives new team mate a big thumbs-up

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.

"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!"