Lewis Hamilton insists Sebastian Vettel will be "stronger" in 2019

Whilst Lewis Hamilton comfortably won the 2018 championship, he expects Sebastian Vettel to be "stronger" throughout the 2019 season.

The Brit is in the hunt to win his sixth world championship, while Vettel is looking to match Hamilton at five titles. The German made key errors last season, none more notable than his run-off while leading his home race.

This was compacted by the Ferrari team who made a few tactical mistakes across the course of the season.

After driving the W10 for the first time at Silverstone last week, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 how he believes Vettel and Ferrari will react to losing another world championship.

“We have to expect that they [Ferrari] are going to take a leap and I have to expect that Sebastian is going to be stronger this year,” Hamilton explained.

“So that means I’ve got to be better. We’ve had a couple of really great battles and particularly last year was one of my favourite years fighting with him.

“I’m hoping that we get to have more of those this year and I hope that also the Red Bulls can perhaps be in that mix because that makes it more fun for the fans."