Valtteri Bottas’s form at the start of the 2019 Formula 1 season has already prompted concerns at Mercedes about the emergence of another intra-team rivalry.
Bottas won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend to match team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s early tally of two victories, a result that also promoted him back into the lead of the drivers’ standings courtesy of his point for the fastest lap in the Australian GP season opener.
Hamilton’s relationship with his previous team-mate Nico Rosberg – who claimed the 2016 drivers’ title before retiring – proved problematic, and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has already said publicly he wants to “avoid” a repeat of how that deteriorated.
Scott Mitchell joins Glenn Freeman to discuss whether Bottas would take the same approach to battling Hamilton as Rosberg did, and the factors that will determine how the rivalry plays out over the course of the year.