Lewis Hamilton is confident he has the pace to beat Nico Rosberg at this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, despite finishing second to his Mercedes team-mate at the opening round in Australia.
Hamilton took pole position in Australia after a clean sweep of all three practice sessions, but made a poor start and had to battle his way back from seventh on lap one to a second place finish. He is wary of Ferrari's speed after being hounded in the closing stages of the race by Sebastian Vettel, who also led in Australia up until his second pit stop, but is confident he has lost none of his raw pace
"I'm excited at the thought of more races like Melbourne," he said. "There are going to be weekends where we're a few seconds up the road from Ferrari, races where it's wheel to wheel and races where they might be ahead. We really don't know - and that's exciting.
"I have a good feeling about my pace. I was ahead all weekend until the race start last time out, so I'm confident heading to Bahrain. It's been entertaining on track for the past two seasons there, so more of the same would be great!"
Hamilton also used his Bahrain preview quotes to vent further frustrations about the direction the sport is taking next year.
"There's been a lot of talk about the rules and whether the drivers should be more involved in decision making. It's not our job to come up with ideas and we all have different opinions anyway. But personally, I think we need more mechanical grip and less aero wake coming off the back of the cars so we can get close and overtake.
"Give us five seconds' worth of lap time from aero and nothing will change - we'll just be driving faster. I speak as somebody who loves this sport and loves racing. I don't have all the answers - but I know that the changes we're making won't deliver better racing."