Formula One: Lewis Hamilton hopes Fernando Alonso contends for 2018 championship

Four-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton hopes to see two-time champion Fernando Alonso in contention for the 2018 championship.

Lewis Hamilton, 32, just won his fourth career Formula One championship this past season, which also happened to be his third in the past four seasons of his 11-year career in the sport, a career during which he has ascended to second on the all-time wins list with 62 victories.

But while he would certainly like to win another, especially since he said that it would be great to tie Juan Manuel Fangio’s mark of five career Formula One championships, which ranks second behind only Michael Schumacher’s total of seven championships on the all-time titles list, Hamilton would like to see one particular driver in championship contention in the 2018 season who has not been competitive lately.

That driver is Fernando Alonso, a two-time Formula One champion who is one of four former champions of the sport who are currently still driving full-time in the sport.

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Alonso won his two Formula One championships back in the 2005 and 2006 seasons, ending Michael Schumacher’s record streak of five straight titles in the process. His 32 career victories rank sixth on the all-time wins list.

However, he has not been competitive recently, largely due to the fact that he has driven for McLaren in each of the last three seasons and they have used Honda engines, which just don’t measure up to the Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault engines used by other teams in terms of speed and reliability.

Over the past three seasons, Alonso has finished no higher than 5th place in the 56 races in which he has driven, and he has just finished 34 of those 56 races. His three finishes in the drivers standings have been the worst three finishes of his career aside of his rookie season when he drove for Minardi in 2001 and failed to score a point.

However, McLaren are switching from Honda to Renault engines next season, and given the fact that the team’s aerodynamic setups have actually been somewhat decent, this could really benefit them. Will it benefit them enough to make Alonso a championship contender? Hamilton hopes so.

Here is what Hamilton had to say about the matter, according to Autosport.com.

"“I had a great battle with Fernando earlier this year, towards the end of this season. I’d love to have more battles with him on a much more level playing ground. They’ve had such a difficult time. Given that I grew up with McLaren from 13, I go through qualifying and I always look to see where Fernando is, I always look to see where they are and am watching their progress.“There’s just a natural place in my heart for them, because I achieved a huge amount with them. I really, really hope next year is a successful year for them, I really hope we are battling with them because McLaren deserve to be at the front. I hope with this new power unit they’re there with us. I hope we have another incredible world champion up there with us fighting for the world championship. “It’s a fantastic team with incredible history. I’m incredibly proud of what Ron did with that team. It doesn’t matter who takes over, for me it’s always Ron’s team.”"

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Will the Renault engines that McLaren is set to use in the 2018 Formula One season make the team competitive enough to the point where two-time champion Fernando Alonso can battle with four-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes for the 2018 championship? The season is set to begin on Sunday, March 25th with the Australian Grand Prix, where we should be given a good indicator of just how strong McLaren, particularly Alonso, will be in 2018.