Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says contract talks with Lewis Hamilton are going well and is confident his star driver won't walk out of the team without giving notice.
This time last year Mercedes was on the hunt for a replacement for Nico Rosberg after the 2016 world champion unexpectedly retired with two years left on his contract. Wolff drafted Valtteri Bottas into the team as his replacement, but had to negotiate with Williams to get the Finn out of his 2017 contract.
Hamilton's current Mercedes deal expires at the end of 2018, and while Wolff is willing to allow Hamilton a degree of flexibility, he is confident his star driver won't leave the team in the same way Rosberg did.
"I think Lewis is a free spirit," Wolff said. "Lewis doesn't want to be put in a box with people saying, 'You need to behave like this and do this to be a racing driver'. One of the key things for him is to be free and be able to decide what he wants to do. And in a certain way, keeping all the options open is something that takes pressure off of him.
"He could be doing something completely different in a year or two or three's time and I am aware of that, but equally I know he will protect the structure and not just say, 'I'm out of here tomorrow'. But this is part of his strength actually."
Asked for an update on Hamilton's contract negotiations, Wolff added: "They have started already and we are on a good way. Let's see when the white smoke comes out of the chimney."
After losing out in an intense -- and at times vicious -- battle for the title with teammate Rosberg in 2016, relations between Hamilton and Mercedes were frosty at the end of last season. However, following a clear-the-air discussion in Wolff's kitchen at the end of the year, the Mercedes boss said he and Hamilton have never been closer than in 2017.
"Somehow we have been working now with each other for five years and we are brothers in arms. We share the same objectives, we want to win as many races as possible and as many championships as possible, and this has bound us together.
"Some frustrations built up in the last year due to the rivalry between Nico and Lewis and reliability issues that were on his car last year and we let it all out in the kitchen discussion. We acknowledged each other's frustrations and that is an important step forward in any relationship, to understand where the other one is coming from.
"This has helped and we've thought about it over the winter in so far that all the other things that were happening -- James [Allison] coming [as technical director] and Valtteri [Bottas] joining the team - the relationship has become much stronger. And on our joint journey, hopefully over some years to come, this is an asset."