I think he will have to start obeying team orders later in the year , but not yet . I expect he knows / feels this will be his last year with merc . So he will drive for himself as long as he can .
I totally forgot how Mercedes fix every race in Hamilton’s favour and that he isn’t stratospherically better than Bottas on most weekends I don’t like Hamilton either. but I can put it to one side to acknowledge he’s pretty damn good.
Perhaps the last seven years have left me overly pessimistic, but I'm not seeing ebb and flow. I'm seeing Mercedes getting faster every race now they've got on top of the issues they had in testing. I guess we'll see in the next two or three races.
It looks like it’s mainly tyre warm up. They look a bit vulnerable for a lap or two after putting new tyres on then it sorts itself out. I wonder if what might introduce some ebb and flow is variations in track temps. Although if they are staying in touch in cooler conditions it could be ominous for the rest when it’s warm.
