Lewis Hamilton: I’d love to have a six-way scrap for the Formula One title

Lewis Hamilton is relishing a potential six-way challenge for Formula One glory and believes having more realistic rivals than just his team-mate would make a fourth title even sweeter.

Mercedes have dominated in recent seasons, Nico Rosberg winning the world title last year off the back of two Hamilton championships, the Mercedes duo the only realistic title contenders over the course of those seasons.

But after F1 bosses revamped the rule book for 2017, Ferrari appear to have caught up while Red Bull are also hopeful they will be nipping at the heels of the pace-setting Mercedes.

And Hamilton, speaking in Melbourne ahead of Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, said: “Every year your goal is to beat everyone and the more of a fight you have the more satisfying it is when you are victorious.

“I’m fully up for a challenge and a fight and that’s what I prepare for so I think it’s not a bad thing. Having more teams and drivers up the front fighting for wins is what racing is all about so that’s what I’m hoping for.”

Mercedes are bidding for a fourth consecutive constructors’ title over the course of the 20-race season coming after a period of Red Bull dominance, and the regulations have been given a facelift in order to ensure an end to such hegemony, which Hamilton welcomed despite having been the main recipient of that dominance.

“I think there should be more changes as there can often be a dominance for a certain team and it’s hard to catch up,” he said. “There’s a limit to how much development you can do in the year and top teams can develop at a similar pace so, if you’ve got a gap at the beginning, it’s hard to close that gap with the rules. Doing drastic changes spices things up.”

Hamilton has a new team-mate in Valtteri Bottas, who stepped into the seat vacated by Rosberg after he surprisingly retired in the aftermath of edging his British rival to the world title last season.

Once again in winter testing in Barcelona, Mercedes looked both quick and reliable, with their rivals adamant they will once more set the benchmark both in Australia and beyond.

Lewis Hamilton

But Hamilton insists that Ferrari are currently top dog off the back of the testing days at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

“I see Ferrari being the quickest and they’ll definitely be the favourites,” said the three-time world champion.

“But we’ll know more going into the weekend. Sebastian usually uses a lot more hype and I can tell they’re trying to keep a lid on it but their pace was great in testing. I’m keen to see what Red Bull will bring because they were quite far behind at least compared to Ferrari and I didn’t see many or any upgrades so I assume they’ll bring something here so I’m excited to see what they bring here.”

While Hamilton and Vettel — with seven titles between them — have been the two leading lights in the modern era, neither has really been vying with each other for the world title at the same time. On paper at least, a proper head to head finally looks on.

And the Briton is relishing the prospect: “I’ve not had a lot of battles with Sebastian on track so would love to have that. The fans want to see that.”

Inevitably before every season, there is pre-race posturing both on and off the track. Ferrari are quietly confident they have made progress from last season when similarly they promised so much in testing only to tail off significantly after the Australian Grand Prix, a race they should really have won.

Despite that, Vettel insisted Mercedes must be favourites: “They have been in very strong form the last three years. Even though we change the rules, if the team is strong they will build a strong car the year after. It’s very clear who is the favourite. All of us here are sitting here — we’re trying our best to catch up. How much we have succeeded we will see during the season.”