Though it lost the two opening races to Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, by China Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton had reclaimed their customary positions at the top of the standings. Despite a slight glitch in Azerbaijan, where Ferrari leapfrogged the German team, it was business as usual from Barcelona.

Heading to Canada, where his team expects to struggle on the hypersofts (again), Hamilton claims that in what is clearly a three-way title fight, Ferrari has the best car.

"It's definitely a three-way fight and Ferrari, I think, are still the strongest," he said, according to ESPN. "Their car was quick in Monaco, their car was working quite well through the whole season so far and they have dropped the ball a few times and we've capitalised on that.

"So we are further ahead than we would be if everyone had done the same job, if you know what I mean," he added. "But I still feel that they're the strongest and Sebastian has been doing the strongest job. But it is a three-way battle."

While Red Bull was always thought to be best suited to Monaco, Hamilton believes the engine upgrade scheduled for Montreal should help make the RB14 competitive on other tracks.

"I think Red Bull potentially have got an upgrade coming at some stage, engine-wise I think at the next race, so it will be interesting to see their performance and they will continue to get stronger through the year. So hopefully, while maybe the (Monaco) race was not the most exciting, it's great for the fans to see this battle that we have.

"I'm telling you, we're doing everything we can to win the race and then the Red Bulls win it and then the Ferraris win it and then we win. It's great to have that. I personally love it and it's challenging me more than I can express. It's the biggest challenge that I've had with my boys, but I'm loving that challenge.

"I'm loving having to dig super deep in my technical knowledge and learning more and how I can communicate, how I can really pick the right set-up and get it right for the weekend... all these different things. I'm enjoying that."