Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are set for a 'best of the best' championship fight in 2018, with Vettel targeting the "ultimate satisfaction" of a title win for Ferrari.
The much-anticipated season kicks off this weekend at the Australian GP with both Vettel and Hamilton - who endured an intense and often heated title battle last year - seeking a fifth world championship crown.
Were either Vettel or Hamilton to prevail, they would become just the third driver in the sport's history to claim a fifth title.
"The ultimate goal is to be the best and to be the best you've got to go up against the best," Hamilton said.
"He's got the four world titles, which was the most of any other driver at the time, and I think this is an exciting year for Formula 1 fans, being that we have two four-time world champions battling it out."
All of Vettel's four titles were clinched with Red Bull and the German described winning a world championship with Ferrari as the "ultimate satisfaction".
Sitting alongside Hamilton, Vettel said: "If I look at the people I raced throughout my career then it's always been the same people, and then you care more about who you race against - it gives you more satisfaction.
"Now I'm searching for the ultimate satisfaction, to win with Ferrari, the greatest team in history and the greatest team in the paddock. That's my ultimate target now, to win with Ferrari and to win against the best - and arguably Lewis is one of them."
