Hamilton: With Bottas nothing is being held back...

Lewis Hamilton has laid praise on new Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas with his openness to share thoughts and information to develop the W08 into an F1 world title contender - with a small dig at former team-mate Nico Rosberg.

The three-time F1 world champion has welcomed Bottas with open arms to the Mercedes fold since being appointed as Rosberg's replacement after the German driver announced his shock retirement from the sport just days after clinching the 2016 world drivers' title.

Bottas has been keen to learn and watch Hamilton in action to get up to speed at Mercedes, while also trying to find any performance edge.

The British driver says he's not looked over his team-mate's data but he is pleased to see the Finn working well with the engineers to find key early gains on the development path with the new Mercedes F1 car.

"It's been great so far," Hamilton said. "Valtteri seems to have settled really well into the team. He's given great feedback, he's working hard with his engineers to get up to date. He's very forthcoming with the information from the car, so the engineers in the team can move forward."

When quizzed on early comparisons to Rosberg, Hamilton underlined the fact 'nothing is being hled back' by Bottas which points towards the turbulent relationship he endured with Rosberg while battling for F1 world titles.

Hamilton has stated when he has retired from F1 he will 'reveal all' from what happened behind closed doors at Mercedes.

"I think we're working at full capacity in terms of how we're developing," he said. "Nothing is being held back which is fantastic."

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