That is the surprise verdict of former F1 champion Nico Rosberg, who has revealed a fast start is what Bottas needs to destabilise Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton goes into the oncoming 2019 campaign as favourite to win the World Drivers’ Championship ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
And he may be hoping Bottas will support him in his quest to do so once again having benefitted from Mercedes team orders last year.
Hamilton is the de facto main man at Mercedes – although Bottas will harbour his own ambitions of sealing title glory one day.
Rosberg, who beat former team-mate Hamilton to the F1 drivers’ championship in 2016, has now suggested Valtteri Bottas could upset the odds to get one over the 34-year-old.
And next month’s Australian Grand Prix will provide the perfect opportunity for him to lay down a marker for the season ahead.
“If [Bottas] has a good start and Lewis loses some of his motivation, which sometimes happens to him, a lot can change,” Rosberg told German news agency DPA.
Hamilton and Bottas’ new W10 car was unveiled by Mercedes on Wednesday prior to a shakedown run at Silverstone.
Mercedes technical director James Allison explained how he and his team have ensured the car is a step up from the one Hamilton won his fifth title with last year.
“The handling of the W09 was a big improvement over the rather idiosyncratic W08,” Allison said.
“We managed to be competitive at tracks which had plagued us in recent years.
“However, notwithstanding this improvement, we were still not as good as some of our competitors at preserving the performance of the rear tyres.
“We have worked hard on the suspension and aerodynamic characteristics to deliver a car that will be much kinder to its tyres – enough, we hope, to allow us to be competitive at all phases of the race and at each track on the calendar.
“Even though the minimum weight limit was lifted by 10kg for 2019, weight reduction remains a real challenge on the current generation of F1 cars.
“Components that we felt were stripped to the bone in 2018 have been taken, one by one, and subjected to a further round of aggressive analysis to shave further weight from them.
“Some components surrender what feels like a giant step of half a kilo, others just a few grams, but collectively each of these victories add up to a handful of kilos that have been invested back in the car on aerodynamics, suspension and Power Unit to bring performance.”