Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton says that he is looking forward to challenging with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel this season, even though he believes that the competition would have been more exciting if they were both driving the same car.
Although Hamilton has been excellent this season, winning three out of four races so far, Vettel has been the only driver who has been able to provide some sort of a challenge to the defending champion, beating him to emerge victorious in the Malaysian Grand Prix in March.
Hamilton insists that he is relishing the competition with the four-time champion, but he feels that it would have been a true fight if both of them were driving the same car.
"I'm looking forward to being able to have a fight with him on the track [this year], as well as with other drivers," Hamilton was quoted by ESPN as saying.
"I think ultimately you will never have a true race unless you are driving the same car, because there is always going to be differences in the cars. We might have more power but they might be better on the brakes, we might be better at one circuit but they might be better at another."
The 30-year-old Briton, Hamilton, who currently leads the driver championship with 93 points, 27 and 28 points ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg and Vettel respectively, admits that McLaren and Ferrari were evenly matched when the two teams were fierce rivals in 2007 and 2008.
However he insists that competing with one's own teammate is always the "real battle" due to both of them having exactly the "same materials".
"I remember in the days of McLaren v Ferrari they had a slightly longer wheelbase and their car was better at looking after tyres - the rears in particular; theirs was a more was more of an understeering car whereas ours was an oversteering car; they were better on the medium to high-speed circuits and we were better on the medium to slow-speed circuits."
"But naturally if you are fighting it out with your team-mate it's a real battle because you've both got the same materials."
