Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff admits he has been surprised by the "underlying respect" Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton have for each other as he praised the relationship between the two drivers.
Bottas' arrival brought a huge turnaround in the atmosphere at the three-time consecutive world champions following the often controversial partnership between the man he replaced Nico Rosberg and Hamilton as the Brackley team dominated F1.
Though that is not too surprising, given the usually relaxed approach by Finn's. the huge contrast in personalities between the former Williams driver and the high-profile Briton means even Wolff was taken aback by how well they have gelled.
"Valtteri for me is performing up to our expectations. When we decided to take him we knew about his qualities," he said commenting on his season initially.
"So, on track, he has met our expectations and it's getting better every race and he progresses every race, which is very nice to see. Where he has exceeded our expectations, and both of them have actually, is how they work together.
"They get on with each other, and respect each other, on track and even more off track. It's very straightforward. It came to a point in Silverstone when Lewis said: 'I'm going to pull him along with me.'
"It's just an underlying respect for the other individual and the other race driver. Have you seen that in the past in a team, where the two guys got on like this?"
Comparing it to the past few years, he added: "The personal relationship between Valtteri and Lewis is totally different than what it was between Nico and Lewis and the working relationship is just in a totally different league, which carries over into the dynamics within the team because everybody is affected in a positive or negative way."
One former world champion not surprised by how Bottas has settled in, however, is Mika Hakkinen, who commented on their partnership after the swap and then re-swap of positions during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
"Seeing Valtteri Bottas move over during the race to let Lewis Hamilton take the fight to Kimi Raikkonen is absolutely typical behaviour for him," the McLaren ambassador wrote on his blog.
"He is not selfish in relation to the teams he works for. Like any top driver he is selfish enough to want to win, but also intelligent enough to know that working together will bring the results to the team.
"What he did required discipline and nerves. He easily could have kept Lewis behind, but he knew Lewis was flying and it was the right decision for the team.
"Later, when I saw Lewis allow Valtteri to overtake him and regain position, I thought to myself that this is a great example of a team working together, a real partnership. There were risks involved in that last lap, as Max Verstappen was very quick towards the end of the race. There was always the chance of giving away a position to him, but Valtteri and Lewis managed it perfectly."
