F1
Nate Saunders, General Editor, F1 6y

Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel doubt they will ever be F1 teammates

Formula 1

Ahead of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel briefly took time to imagine if a future existed for them as Formula One teammates.

Hamilton is still yet to sign a contract extension beyond 2018 with Mercedes, but has repeatedly insisted it is a matter of if and not when a new deal is agreed. Last year, Vettel ended speculation of a move to Mercedes by penning a new deal with Ferrari through 2020.

The two four-time world champions have dominated the modern era: Only Jenson Button (2009) and Nico Rosberg (2016) have managed to beat either of them to the title since Hamilton's first in 2008. The prospect of Hamilton and Vettel pairing up with the same team, and competing in equal machinery, is a tantalising one.

That very topic came up in Wednesday's news conference, where the two men sat next to each other.

The conversation started when Vettel -- who sits second in the F1 standings, 17 points behind Hamilton -- was told about the fact Hamilton was yet to sign a new deal and then asked if he would welcome the Englishman at Ferrari, to which he said: "I don't know, he hasn't asked me."

Hamilton then laughed and said: "He has a veto so that wouldn't happen!"

"I don't, I wouldn't mind," Vettel replied. "To be completely honest, I am very happy with the relationship I have with [Ferrari teammate] Kimi [Raikkonen]."

Hamilton then turned to Vettel, smiled and said: "I think we have a better relationship, don't you think?"

Vettel laughed in response, but went on to point out that he could not see a situation where Hamilton would want to leave Mercedes anytime soon.

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe if we get closer. ... You never know what happens. I am pretty sure Lewis' priority lies with Mercedes, anything else will be a big surprise, but you never know.

"Maybe one day, we both go somewhere because we are old, I don't know, never say never. But for me at the moment, it doesn't really matter, I am very happy to be where I am for the time that everyone knows. I know, then we will see what happens."

Hamilton was then asked whether he would want to go up against Vettel in the same car, which led him to point out the calibre of some of the teammates he's driven against at McLaren and Mercedes.

"I'm down to race with whoever. I am racing against him in a pretty competitive car, which is always exciting. I think for any driver you always want to go up against the best.

"History shows it can often be difficult when there's two incredibly strong alphas within a team, but it seems to kind of work with him and Kimi -- but if you really look you can honestly say that Kimi can't be too happy because there's certain scenarios that don't work out for him.

"It's always difficult, but I love racing against the best drivers because it pushes you to the limit. Racing against Fernando [Alonso] and Jenson [Button] and some of the top drivers that I've raced with, it's just been .... It brings the good and bad out of you, it pushes you to the limit.

"But I feel like the setup I have right now within the team, Valtteri [Bottas] is driving exceptionally well, he's pushing me to the limit and I'm still getting that, but there's still a great harmony within the team and there's respect when one driver does better than the other. It's not always the same when you have different characters, so it's really dependent on the characters that you are with."

He then signed off by turning to Vettel and teasing the idea of a future partnership outside of Formula One.

"But I don't anticipate that we would be driving together in our time unless we do Le Mans together, which we'd probably just murder, but yeah."

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