Mercedes is not ruling out the possibility of exploring other driver options in 2018, even though team boss Toto Wolff is confident new recruit Valtteri Bottas will perform well enough to stay in his seat next year.
Bottas was announced as Nico Rosberg's replacement earlier this week and will race alongside Lewis Hamilton this season. Mercedes did not confirm the length of the deal when it was announced, but Wolff has since said the team is keen to keep its options open for 2018 when the likes of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and McLaren's Fernando Alonso will be back on the driver market.
"We wouldn't have chosen Valtteri if we thought that he was not good enough to continue with the team," he told Finnish podcast Formulacast. "But as a matter of fact, the market is very dynamic at the moment.
"Next year, options open -- young drivers, Sebastian, Fernando, Valtteri -- many of them. So it is about understanding that, and Valtteri does. Equally we have great faith and confidence in him that he can stay with us for a long time, but now we need to see how the season goes."
Mercedes domination over the last three years saw the relationship between Rosberg and Hamilton -- who had raced against each other since they were in go-karts -- strained at times. In his four years in Formula One Bottas has never been in direct competition for a title with Hamilton, and Wolff believes that will make the relationship easier to handle.
"I think you need to have a good dynamic in the team, and if the characters are different like Valtteri and Lewis I think that works well. It was already OK between Nico and Lewis, but there was the baggage of the past. In this case it is a completely new relationship and there is no animosity from the past, but certainly they are both very competitive individuals and if the car is as good as it was in the last few years then there will be times when it is going to be difficult.
"As a matter of fact, with how the two personalities are, I think it is going to be a good situation for the team and one that is maybe a bit easier to handle than in the past. But I could be wrong, I don't know."