The gap between Mercedes and the rest has narrowed and Ferrari "have something up their sleeve" at this week's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, according to champion Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday in a triumphant return two weeks after appendicitis surgery as Red Bull's World champion Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement in two years.
Lewis Hamilton pulverised the track record to claim pole position on Saturday ahead of a US Grand Prix that could secure the Mercedes driver's fourth Formula One world championship.
Lewis Hamilton, who is also an avid tattoo lover, revealed that each image on his body has a meaning to it.
"The comparison? I see still Ayrton winning the game because in the end Ayrton was such a charming guy and a personality. And obviously if someone loses his life and stays with us in the way of a legend, it's always something special. But I try to see it from a performance point and from a performance point, Lewis is going from one pole position to the next one and Lewis is going from one race win to the next one. Just like Ayrton did."
Hamilton has won 71 races, 20 fewer than Schumacher, and four titles for Mercedes in the past five years. The first was with McLaren in 2008.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday in a Mercedes one-two that ended Sebastian Vettel's bid for a fourth in a row.
Sebastian Vettel's hopes of vaulting back into the overall Formula One world championship lead were wrecked by a first corner collision on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position for Mercedes on Sunday to go into the August break with a 24-point lead over Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel.
Reigning F1 champ warns Bottas about Hamilton rivalry
Triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton beat team mate Nico Rosberg to pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday in a front row sweep for dominant Mercedes.
The pole was a record-extending 82nd of Hamilton's career and his 10th of a season that has already seen the Briton clinch his fifth world championship.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday with Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas alongside him on the front row.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and overall leader Nico Rosberg set to start seventh after a grid penalty. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg joined the Briton on the front row, only his second career top-two start, although the German was under investigation by stewards for a possible flag infringement.
Lewis Hamilton put Monaco misery behind him on Sunday with a controlled Canadian Grand Prix victory.
Lewis Hamilton believes his Mercedes Formula One team can live up to their advance billing as favourites when the season starts in Australia next week.
British media reports have suggested the new deal could be worth up to 40 million pounds ($52 million) a year and is likely to make the four-time F1 champion the sport's top earner.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has insisted that his team must consult him on who would replace recently-retired world champion Nico Rosberg next season before also warning them against signing big names like Fernando Alonso.
Lewis Hamilton's world championship defence got off to a flying start on Sunday with a crushing victory for Mercedes in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as Formula One rivals succumbed to a farcical rash of reliability problems.
Lewis Hamilton won the Monaco Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday, nursing his car's worn tyres to the finish in a nail-biting victory worthy of the team's late great Niki Lauda.
Lewis Hamilton said he was ready for a new beginning in Brazil at the end of the Formula One season and spoke on Thursday of his hope of re-kindling his romance with singer Nicole Scherzinger.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday in a Mercedes one-two with title rival Nico Rosberg.
Lewis Hamilton accused Mercedes team mate and Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg of deliberately colliding with him at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, the Briton's closest rival, finished only sixth after an early collision with Red Bull's Max Verstappen left the German fighting back from 19th place.
The Indian cricket team was fined for slow over-rate for the third successive match after it was four overs short of the target in the opening One Day International against New Zealand, in Hamilton, on Wednesday.
Finland's Valtteri Bottas took his first Formula One pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday with a sizzling lap that ended Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton's bid for a seventh in a row.
Max Verstappen won Formula One's first Chinese Grand Prix in five years on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton stepped out on to the Italian Grand Prix podium, high above the red tide of Ferrari.
The Mercedes driver's 55th career win was hard-fought and tense, however, with Ferrari's Vettel seizing the lead at the start and in the hunt all the way to the finish as the tyre strategies played out.
Electrical gremlins held up Lewis Hamilton in Italian Grand Prix practice on Friday after the Mercedes driver had lapped more than half a second quicker than anyone else in the morning session.
'The best part is if you get on the podium with them two, in the room before we go out on the podium just after the race, you take the helmet off and it's awkward for me because it's just so silent'
Daryl Mitchell and Kane Williamson hit fifties as New Zealand thrashed Pakistan by 46 runs in the first T20 International.
The win also set a record, one that Hamilton had previously shared with seven times champion Michael Schumacher, of 41 wins from pole position.
Lewis Hamilton's hopes of clinching his fifth Formula One World championship at the US Grand Prix were boosted on Friday when Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel was handed a three-place grid penalty for a practice infringement.
The victory at Suzuka was the Dutch driver's 13th in 16 races this season and left him on the brink of a third world title.
Lewis Hamilton won his home British Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row on Sunday while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel suffered a penultimate lap puncture that slashed his championship lead to a single point.
Prolific India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, the leading run-scorer in the ongoing Test series against England, has been nominated for ICC Men's Player of the Month Award for February alongside New Zealand's Kane Williamson and Sri Lanka's Pathum Nissanka.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday to end Formula One leader Max Verstappen's record run of 10 wins in a row.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton went from China crisis to champagne celebration on Sunday with a stirring victory that denied Red Bull's Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel a fifth win in a row.
Massa, who failed to score after a bungled pitstop, claims the race should have been cancelled because the sport's leaders allegedly knew before the end of the 2008 season what had happened but covered it up.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances