In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says Max Verstappen out-performed his Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo last year, despite the latter scoring more points.

RaceFans 2018 F1 season preview

The first race of the 2018 F1 season is less than two weeks away and in the week ahead we’ll take a look at how all the teams have prepared for the new championship.

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What they’re saying

Lewis Hamilton assessed the competition during the launch of the new Mercedes:

Last year Red Bull were over a second behind at the beginning. And their rate of development, because they had development to do, was far steeper than everyone else’s: Us and Ferrari’s, for example. Will they continue on that slope into this season? If they do it’s a challenge for Ferrari and us to follow in that development. Who’s going to be the fastest? We have no idea. Obviously we’re hopeful we’ve done enough. I do anticipate, it is a smaller step with this car than it was a brand new car, the rate of development we saw at the beginning with a brand new car. It’ll be interesting, I have no idea. Last year, if you look at Max, if he had a more reliable car he’d’ve finished ahead of Daniel, he out-performed him pretty much throughout the whole year. So you have to respect he’s going to be strong again. But then Daniel might be strong. And Sebastian I think Ferrari will be up there with us. I really can’t predict any more than that.

Is Hamilton right? Here’s how Ricciardo and Verstappen compared last year:

Snapshot Conditions were described as “torrential” for Renault’s demonstration run in Nice last weekend. “It was a shame the weather was so bad but I saw a lot of people with smiles on their faces,” said Nico Hulkenberg, who drove the team’s 2012 car at the event. “I think we put on a good show and hopefully gave people a taste of what’s to come with the French GP.” Social media Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more: Here's @HulkHulkenberg warming the French crowd! #RSspirit pic.twitter.com/t1YuzvMtEf — Renault Sport F1 (@RenaultSportF1) March 11, 2018 Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

From the forum Which is the best F1 race to attend?

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On this day in F1 Defending world champion Keke Rosberg beat the turbos to put his normally-aspirated Williams on pole for the season-opening race at Jacarepagua today in 1983