Lewis Hamilton has been given permission to start working at Mercedes early.
The 2008 world champion is contracted to McLaren until the end of the year, but team principal Martin Whitmarsh is allowing him to hold talks with his new colleagues before then.
Hamilton told Sky Sports News: "I won't be doing much technical work with them, but I'm allowed to talk to people.
"I'm going to have the biggest holiday I've had for a long, long time.
"I look forward to hardly any of the PR events I've got. It will be like a third of the PR events I have here or maybe a quarter."
Hamilton will drive a Mercedes for the first time at pre-season testing in Spain in February.
