Hamilton: I don't anticipate being Vettel's teammate

Wild speculation doing the rounds, at some point, that Hamilton, who is in no rush to sign a contract extension with Mercedes, has an option to join Ferrari which he is considering. Which would mean teaming up with Vettel at Maranello, should the German be the one to stay if such an outlandish plot does transpire, but this appears way off the mark.

In Monte-Carlo, Hamilton was asked if he would consider being Vettel's teammate, to which he replied, "I don’t anticipate that we will probably be driving together in our time, unless we do, like, Le Mans together one day which we should probably just murder, wouldn’t we?"

As for going up against his fellow four times F1 World Champion, Hamilton said, "I’m down to race with whoever. Ultimately, I mean I’m racing against him in a pretty competitive car which is always exciting but I think for any driver you always want to go up against the best."

"I think you’ve seen in history that it can often be difficult when there are two incredibly strong alphas within a team but you’ve seen that it seems to kind of work with him and Kimi, but then if you really look at… you can honestly say that Kimi can’t be too happy because there are certain scenarios that don’t necessarily work out for him, so it’s just always difficult."

"I love racing against the best of drivers because it really pushes you to the limit. Racing against Fernando, racing against Jenson, and some of the top drivers that I raced with has just been... it brings the good and bad out of you, it pushes you to the limit but I feel that the set-up, for example, that I have right now within the team..."

"Valtteri is driving exceptionally well, pushing me to the limit, and I’m still getting that but there’s a great harmony within the team and there’s a respect when one of the drivers does better than the other and it’s not necessarily always the same when it’s different characters, so it’s really dependent on the characters you’re with."

But questions regarding the delayed contract extension negotiations would not go away, as Red Bull team chief Christian Horner mischievously (or not) speculated that there is a stand-off between Mercedes bosses and Hamilton over the amount of money he is requesting.

Hamilton explained the situation, "There isn’t any sticking points. There just hasn’t been any rush. I told you at the beginning there’s no rush to do it and I would do it in my own time. There’s no discussion with anybody else, there’s no consideration for anybody else, it’s just taking my time."

"I just don’t see any need to rush. I still have a contract in place, I’m enjoying racing, it’s nice to keep you guys guessing what’s happening. There’s not really much more to say really. There’s not really much more to say."

"It’s a great process that you go through with a contract but I just tell my people there’s no rush. If it’s not ready this week, and it’s not ready the week after, it’s not ready… no stress. I’m not going to stress about it," insisted Hamilton.