With just nine wins during his stint at Mercedes, Karun Chandhok says Valtteri Bottas is not that good when it comes to races, but Paul di Resta feels that makes him an “ideal” team-mate.

Having decided to delay announcing Hamilton’s 2022 team-mate, Mercedes have given pundits a few more days, or even weeks, to speculate about which way the Brackley team’s bosses are leaning.

Bottas is up against George Russell for the race seat, both coming with pros and also cons.

In Bottas, Hamilton has a proven number two who is willing to sacrifice his race for his team-mate while with Russell, it would be a young pretender who, many believe, would pose more of a threat on race Sundays.