Hamilton: Don't expect Rosberg-like rivalry with Bottas

Lewis Hamilton says that no one should expect the intra-team tensions that were seen at Mercedes from 2014 to 2016 prior to Nico Rosberg's retirement.

At the opening four races of the 2019 campaign, Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas have picked up two wins each. During their first two years as teammates, Hamilton dominated the Finn on his way to two consecutive world titles.

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However, now that they have started the year on similar levels, Bottas may pose a serious threat to Hamilton's run of titles.

If the pair were to fight for the championship, Hamilton is confident that Mercedes would avoid a similar situation to when Rosberg partnered the five-time world champion, despite Mercedes' team boss Toto Wolff admitting he has seen glimpses of that scenario this year.

"There's things that happen in the background that you won't know about," Hamilton said. "I don't feel it's the place to really talk about it.

"When he [Wolff] mentions glimpses of that, he has seen a glimpse of it. What's really important is we pull together as a team. We've discussed it and hopefully rectified it and it won't spring up again.

"Whereas what happened before, an individual just continued to go down that route.

"But that's not what we have here. We have a really great energy within the team. The respect is there. We have an agreed rule set out so we do finish the races one-two. We play supporting roles either way."

Hamilton doesn't believe there is a need for the public to know what is happening behind the scenes of the Mercedes team, but maintains that there is a high level of respect between himself and Bottas.

"It's all internal, we keep everything internal, and it's not for the public domain," Hamilton said.

"As I said everything is great within the team and the respect is still there. We continue to push on and won't have problems as we continue. Don't expect what you've seen in the past."