Saturday 5 March 2016 10:52, UK
Lewis Hamilton says he would have nothing to prove if he was paired as a team-mate to Fernando Alonso again.
Alonso has revealed that a deal was proposed by his management team two years ago that would have seen the Spaniard and Hamilton swap their seats at Ferrari and Mercedes.
Nico Rosberg, Hamilton's current team-mate at Mercedes, is in the final year of his existing deal with the Silver Arrows while Alonso's decision to leave Ferrari to return to McLaren has been described as a "terrible mistake" by Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle.
But Hamilton has scoffed at talk in the paddock that Mercedes might consider pairing him with Alonso in a rekindling of the partnership which imploded spectacularly in 2007 when they were team-mates at McLaren.
"I don't care who I race against," Hamilton told Sky Sports News HQ. "I'm happy with what we have here. We've already raced together in the same car and got a result so it's not like anything else needs proving."
Hamilton and Alonso finished 2007 with the same amount of points but the Englishman - then a rookie - was classified ahead.
Mercedes warned both Hamilton and Rosberg at the end of 2015 that they would consider changing their driver line-up unless their two feuding drivers learnt to co-exist, while team boss Toto Wolff has confirmed the team are in no rush to open talks with Rosberg about a new deal.
"I want to see how the season pans out," Wolff said.
Alonso, meanwhile, is in the second of the three-year deal he signed when he moved back to McLaren just over a year ago. Although the team enjoyed their most productive day of winter testing so far on Tuesday, Alonso's fastest lap time was still nearly two seconds shy of Mercedes' benchmark on identical tyres.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was six tenths off Rosberg's best time on soft tyres after finally moving off the medium compound on the sixth day of pre-season running at Barcelona on Wednesday.
"I got my laps in and I've got an understanding where the car is good and where the car isn't good," said Hamilton. "But generally testing has been great.
"I haven't looked at where everybody else but everyone is naturally going to hype us up. But we don't know what fuel load Ferrari are on and they have a strong package. Even Williams look like they have quite a strong package. So l wouldn't take any notice of what they are saying, to be honest."
The first race of the 2016 F1 season, the Australian GP, is exclusively live on Sky Sports F1. The race in Melbourne starts at 5am on Sunday March 20.
