The new season is rapidly approaching and much of the talk around the paddock regards those drivers who are entering into the final year of their deal at their current manufacturers.

That includes Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. While there is currently little concern that Hamilton's future will be elsewhere in 12 month's time, there is far less certainty surrounding his teammate. 

However, according to Jolyon Palmer, it might well be in Hamilton's best interests to see Bottas stay on for at least another year.

Since it was confirmed Jolyon Palmer had lost his seat with Renault to Carlos Sainz for the 2018 season, the British driver has joined up with BBC Radio 5 as an F1 expert.

And he believes that Hamilton will be more than happy if the veteran Finn signs another contract with the German automotive giants.

The 27-year-old think the arrangement appears to echo what happens at Ferrari with Vettel and Raikkonen.

“I think he’ll be very happy with it,” Palmer said, as per Planet F1.

“It’s a very similar situation to what we’ve got at Ferrari where Sebastian Vettel is kind of the No 1 driver, whether officially or not, and he’s voiced his support for Kimi Raikkonen to stay there.

“When you have a situation like this in the team, you have one guy that is the No 1 then they don’t want the second guy to be as quick, it’s natural.

“He’s a competitor and he can also be helpful in a title run-in.

“Both Hamilton and Bottas are out of contract at the end of the year but I don’t think Lewis will be worried about it one bit because he can go anywhere he wants and I’m sure if Mercedes are quick and he has the desire to keep going then he’ll stay.

“To be honest, he probably won’t mind who his team-mate is because he’s four-time World Champion, could be five at the end of this year, he’s got a lot of confidence, a lot of natural talent and in the end for him it doesn’t matter.”