Hamilton on Mercedes reorganisation: 'Only makes the team stronger'

"James has always been part of the team. Obviously he was focused a little bit in another area before. I think having him step back in a little bit to support and work alongside Mike, is only going to strengthen the team moving forwards. He's obviously got an amazing amount of experience. So yeah, I think moving forwards it's just going to be great for the team," Hamilton told GPblog and others at the press conference .

In Melbourne, Hamilton grabbed the first podium finish of the season for Mercedes by finishing second behind Max Verstappen. Hamilton thinks a repeat of that should certainly not be ruled out. "A lot of work has been done in the background. I think that last race was really great for us. We worked really hard to get that sort of result. It won't be easy to do that again. We know the Ferraris will be quick, we know the Red Bulls will be quick, we know the Astons will be quick as well."

Hamilton wants to be in the mix

Hamilton hopes to take on the competition with his W14. "I hope that we are just in the mix. I hope that we get ti battle with them. This is an amazing event for us to do that and particularly with the shake-up of the whole format of the weekend. It's probably the most exciting weekend so far this year. I'm looking forward to see how it turns out."

The seven-time world champion is very curious to see how the changed format of the sprint race weekend will turn out. "I think it's going to be tough for everyone, but we are all in the same boat. What a track to be able to do it at, where overtaking is possible, it's great racing here. We always have mostly the best races here," Hamilton said.