For the upcoming F1 season, newly-crowned world champion Lewis Hamilton hopes that his former teammate Fernando Alonso can join the 2018 F1 title fight. The 32-year old Briton said, “I will prepare more than ever to try to take home my fifth championship next year. We will be in a four-way fight: us, Red Bull, Ferrari as always and perhaps McLaren. We cannot afford to stay calm, we need to keep working and improving.”

McLaren struggled for three years with an underpowered and unreliable Honda power unit. After parting ways with Mercedes, the Woking team reunited with Honda, a team that had brought them much success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Sadly, they could not pick up where they left off. After 3 arduous years of continuous struggling, the partnership was through. Now, French manufacturer, Renault have filled in the void. They will partner McLaren next year.

Quite frankly, Hamilton is excited about the prospect of a McLaren Renault partnership. He cannot wait to see the likes of Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne joining the Big 3 in the 2018 F1 title fight. He said, “There will also be McLaren with the Renault engines. This year we had a nice duel and I’d like more of them. Fernando deserves to fight at the front so I hope that another world champion like him can join the battle.”

Hamilton was referring to the 2017 Mexican GP where he dropped to the back of the pack due to first lap contact. Both he and Sebastian Vettel had to fight their way up the field. Lewis overtook most cars with relative ease… Until he got behind Alonso. Despite the major major power disadvantage the Honda engine had, Alonso was still able to fend of Hamilton for a few laps. After 2 laps of wheel-to-wheel action, Hamilton finally dispatched off the orange and black McLaren.