But would Bottas win the title for Mercedes if Hamilton jumped ship?
He’s currently running second in the championship so, if Hamilton was incapacitated and missed the second half of the season, Bottas seems to be good enough, especially considering that his teammate would almost certainly be told to assist him to take the title.
Hamilton is not going to jump ship next year, nobody takes that seriously. However, if he did, Merc would have Verstappen, Vettel, Ricciardo, Alonso, plus every other driver on the grid offering their services.
Nobody believes Bottas is as good as Hamilton, but Hamilton is one of the best drivers ever seen so they’re not expecting his teammate to be at quite the same level. The question is whether they can find somebody better than Bottas who is not going to clash with Hamilton. Let’s face it, Alonso is better than Hamilton, but Merc don’t want him because of his reputation for chaos. Bottas is a solid, sensible team player, and he’s capable of going very fast when he can get the car set up well. My money is on Merc deciding to keep him on.