MELBOURNE: Lewis Hamilton’s bid to regain his Formula One title might actually prove harder without Nico Rosberg around.

Rosberg retired days after becoming the 2016 world champion and finally getting the better of Hamilton, ending their acrimonious rivalry at Mercedes just as he got the upper hand.

With Rosberg gone, a key factor this season — starting Sunday with the Australian Grand Prix — will be how three-time champion Hamilton gets on with his new team-mate.

Valtteri Bottas was plucked from Williams after Rosberg’s shock announcement. The calm Finnish driver is seen as the perfect foil for the tempestuous Hamilton, an outspoken driver not afraid to stand up to management.

A perfect match in theory, perhaps not in reality.

Hamilton and Rosberg had a tense relationship and openly feuded at times, forcing Mercedes management to intervene. Crucially, however, the quick and consistent Rosberg also brought the best out of Hamilton — forcing him to up his pace in qualifying and on race day.

Even though he lost the title, at times last year Hamilton’s driving was the best of his career. Some credit for that must also go to Rosberg’s relentless competitiveness.

Rosberg quit F1 with 23 wins, but the 27-year-old Bottas has never won a race at this level. He has only nine career podiums and never finished higher than fourth in the championship.

If he does not challenge Hamilton in the same way that Rosberg did, then Hamilton’s level might drop.

If so, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, a four-time F1 champion, and Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo will be poised to take advantage.

Vettel is desperate to bring the drivers’ title back to Ferrari for the first time since Kimi Raikkonen, his current team-mate, won it in 2007.

“Imagine Ferrari are great and the championship is being fought between Vettel, with four world championships and Lewis, with three,” 1996 world champion Damon Hill told reporters. “That’s going to be an exciting battle.”

It could happen, with Ferrari fastest in pre-season testing and raising suspicions that their new SF70H car has closed the chasm between Mercedes and the rest.

Verstappen and Ricciardo, who each won a race last year, can also be counted on for thrills and their new car could be more competitive than testing times have indicated.

“It is always hard to say who now has the better car, but it is very obvious that Ferrari is stronger than last year,” Verstappen said. “Mercedes is always up there as well. I think that they are not showing their true potential.”

Williams have the youngest and least experienced driver on the grid in Canadian 18-year-old rookie Lance Stroll but he is better placed than Belgian standout Stoffel Vandoorne at McLaren.

Vandoorne, who did one race last year, has replaced the departed 2009 champion Jenson Button in a car plagued with reliability problems.

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Spain made little attempt at hiding his feelings after a frustrating run of failures during testing.

“There is no reliability and there is no power,” he said.

For one of the sport’s traditional grandee teams, it is an embarrassing situation that new executive director Zak Brown has inherited. And even before the start of the new season, team chief Eric Boullier had to fend off talk that Alonso is looking to move.

“He wants to be competitive and we need to be competitive to keep him happy... if not, he’ll take his own decisions,” he said.

The sport has a new look, with fatter tyres and wider cars that also look more aggressive following Liberty Media’s takeover and the off-season departure of the sport’s veteran commercial ring-master Bernie Ecclestone.

That has seen lap times slashed, with drivers able to take many corners flat out even if cars are slower on the straights.

Whether they can overtake any more easily remains an open question, and the more durable tyres are likely to lead to fewer pitstops.

“Let’s hope the racing’s fantastic, but don’t hold your breath, I’d say,” commented Hamilton after the first pre-season test.

The same sentiment might well apply to anyone hoping to beat the Briton this season.

“Mercedes is the clear, clear favourite. They have won 50 races in the last three years, we’ve won five and Ferrari three. Do I have to say more?” Red Bull principal Christian Horner told the official F1.com website.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2017