Wolff: Bottas, Hamilton relationship won't go like Rosberg

Toto Wolff says he doesn't expect the Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton team-mate relationship to turn sour like Hamilton's did with Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.

After the dramatic departure of Rosberg from Formula 1 less than a week after claiming the 2016 F1 world title, Wolff secured Bottas as the German's replacement at Mercedes and from the beginning was adamant there would be no inter-team tensions between his two drivers in 2017.

With Bottas clinching his maiden F1 Grand Prix win in Russia, while Hamilton struggled throughout the race weekend to finish over 30 seconds off the Finn in fourth place, Wolff is certain a similarly bitter rivalry won't surface between Bottas and Hamilton compared to the British driver's breakdown with Rosberg.

"I think we could have a ding-dong in terms of it going towards one and then the other," Wolff said. "Lewis just had a really bad weekend and it wasn't up to him. We just need to sort out the interaction between the car, the driver and tyres.

"The relationship between the two of them is very intact. Lewis was one of the first ones to congratulate Valtteri on his first race victory."

Wolff has echoed his previous sentiment that Bottas and Hamilton share a mutual respect but understands they are both 'fierce competitors' aiming to win world titles.

"I think that shows the respect they have towards each other. Nevertheless, both are fierce competitors and want to win races and fight for a championship but I don't think it will affect the team and the dynamic like it did with Nico. That's a completely different relationship."

Latest Tweets from Crash.net & GPF1rst