Lewis Hamilton goes into the summer break expecting Ferrari and their ace Sebastian Vettel to be his main rivals next year while wary of his own teammate Valtteri Bottas and genuinely hopes Honda get their act together and Red Bull becomes serious contenders.
Ahead of the winter break, when asked to predict his challengers for 2019, Hamilton told reporters in Abu Dhabi, “I would imagine it’s going to be Sebastian and Valtteri alongside me.”
But at the same time he is hoping for more competition from Red Bull and their new Honda engine partner, “They have got a great car. They’ve been very strong at the end of the year, they’ve got a new engine next year."
"Will it be able to compete with ours? I hopes, because that would be epic if Red Bull could really start to mingle with us a bit more, weekend in, weekend out."
Hamilton referencing the fact that Red Bull begin their gamble with Honda next year, should the Japanese auto giant build a decent engine the energy drinks outfit are sure to be contenders as they traditionally produce great chassis' under the watch of design guru Adrian Newey.
The Mercedes driver continued, “They’ve got to obviously improve on their reliability, which has been a big downfall for them this year. So there are lots of areas [to improve], but I really wish them all the best – and we welcome the competition as a team that’s for sure.”
"I really hope that they are there because I think it will just add to the spectacle if there was a six-way battle between the Ferraris, Red Bulls and Mercedes. That would be even closer than for example us and Ferrari, with Red Bull up there next year it would be awesome," added the five-time Formula 1 World Champion.
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