Hamilton sure Ferrari will give Alonso a car to stay in the championship fight

The Maranello squad started the 2012 campaign aware that its car did not have the pace to match those of its main rivals after a difficult winter of testing.

Despite that, Alonso managed to win the Malaysian Grand Prix and now leads the championship after the first six races of the year. The Spaniard is three points ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso has proved to be the most consistent driver so far, as only he and Hamilton have scored points in every race.

"I'm sure that Ferrari, being the competitive team that they are and with the experience that they have, will be very strong throughout the year," said Hamilton.

"We are probably one of the main teams that are able to recover from a poor start and they have done the same thing. I think that they are going to be competitive throughout the year."

Hamilton also hinted that Alonso will only become harder to beat once he and Ferrari get on top of the F2012 as the season goes on.

"I think once he has the car - which he has done in some of the races - he will be extremely quick and difficult to beat," said Hamilton.

"Of course he is a two-time world champion and he's achieved an incredible amount in his career and he's ahead of me in the world championship at the moment. But I want to switch that around by the end of the season and I'm sure we'll have a great battle until the end of the year."