Hamilton Wants To Beat Rivals To Make Them "Hurt"

The reigning world champion wants to prove he is the best in the business and looks forward to taking on all comers in 2018.

Lewis Hamilton has said he is relishing the fight this coming season and wants to make his rivals "hurt so much" when he beats them and wants them to be at their best when he does so.

It was a closer affair in 2017 with Sebastian Vettel posing a new threat from outside the Mercedes team. A closely fought championship may have tailed off at the end but he wants more of the same this season. Where psychology may have been former teammate Nico Rosberg's point of attack, Hamilton maintained he wanted to do all his talking on the track.

"I don't play psychological war. Never, ever, ever have.

"My psychological war is I arrive fit and ready and I'm there to kill, and others know I'm good at what I do.

"I don't think the best athletes want to put the others off so they perform worse.

"They want to perform at their best so they can prove they are better than them.

"Beating someone when they are weak doesn't mean you're the best. That sucks.

"If you ever believe you are the best because you beat someone when they are down, that's the worst.

"I want to beat these guys at their best, when they are physically in the best shape, because then it's going to hurt so much. And that's what I love."

Fans around the world will want a closer battle between two of this generations greats in Hamilton and Vettel with a renewed threat of Red Bull a possibility, a titanic battle in 2018 could be just around the corner.