“But he is consistently there and showing good things and also in the past I have raced with him and I know how strong he is.
“So he definitely deserves that spot and I think it will be great to have such a talented driver in that seat.”
While two more big voices in the sport have backed Russell, Hamilton himself has said he would like to continue the fruitful partnership he has struck up with Bottas since the Finn joined him at Mercedes in 2017.
The championship leader has praised both publicly, but has said on numerous occasions he enjoys racing alongside Bottas.
“Valtteri has been my best team-mate overall and when I say team-mate it’s not just driver performance, it’s about team morale and how you work in the team-mate environment,” he said on the subject in June.
And Bottas told Finnish media Hamilton has repeated the sentiment to him directly, but admitted the “bigger machine” of team boss Toto Wolff and the Daimler board is the group which makes the decision.