Lewis Hamilton believes he and Valtteri Bottas have already developed a better working relationship than he has experienced with any previous teammate in Formula One.
Hamilton and Bottas spent their first official on-track sessions working together during the opening pre-season test at Barcelona last week, following the Finn's switch to Mercedes to replace retiring world champion Nico Rosberg. Despite having only been teammates for two months, and with the 2017 season yet to start, Hamilton reckons the pair already share a strong working relationship.
"I have learned that he makes his own entertainment," Hamilton told the official F1 website. "He is very witty and comes out with some very funny things -- which you would not really expect from a Finn! [laughs]. 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. There are no games -- there is complete transparency. I like that.
"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 -- and 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. And we do our talking on the track!"
Hamilton and Rosberg's relationship was littered with flash points of controversy and tension throughout their four-year spell together as teammates at Mercedes, most prominently when fighting for the world championship during three consecutive seasons between 2014 and 2016.
The most-recent -- and final -- moment of on-track drama between the duo came at the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in which Hamilton unsuccessfully tried to back Rosberg into the chasing pack in one final attempt to seal his fourth world title.
When asked how he dealt with the aftermath of the controversial season-ending race, Hamilton replied: "That is an interesting one -- unfortunately with no particularly interesting answer: it's just the way it is -- you have to play the game. That last race was tough and I feel morally in my heart that I did what I needed to do -- I never had the feeling that I stepped over the line.
"But then things are said and there was that feeling of negative energy towards me -- but the team had won, so you had to be happy for the team. Yes, it definitely was tough, but you suck it up and you move forward. I try to be at the factory more often now and give them the feeling that yes, they have lost a driver, but they have another driver who cares."