Lewis Hamilton issued a rather stern rallying cry to teammate Valtteri Bottas in the post-race press conference at the Australian Grand Prix earlier today.

Hamilton had taken pole position in qualifying, yet eventually ended up sandwiched between the two Ferrari drivers in second, as Sebastian Vettel took the win in the season opener.

The podium was completed by Kimi Raikkonen, securing a successful day for Ferrari, and one to forget for Mercedes.

Bottas finished in eighth place after his qualifying crash left him with a mountain to climb from a starting position of 15th place, all the way back on row eight.

Following a question from Sky journalist Rachel Brookes on the importance of both team drivers being on top of their game, four-time champion Hamilton was candid about the need for help from his teammate to challenge the talented Ferrari team.

“To fight Ferrari, the primary goal is to win the Constructors' Championship, and one driver can’t do that on his own, it’s all about team work.

"I don’t know if that would have made much difference today having Valtteri in there, who knows.

"I mean he probably would have been in the top four with me, maybe on the front row who knows.

"However, it wasn’t the case, and in the future, we’ll try to pull together and be a tight unit."

Hamilton will be disappointed to have relinquished the pole position after such a promising qualifying session, and will hope his comments spur on Bottas, who had a disastrous start on Saturday, crashing his car on Turn 1.

The British star had already laid down the gauntlet for his teammate earlier this month, as he said that there would be “no more excuses” after the Finn replaced the retired Nico Rosberg at the German giants last season.

“It’s difficult coming to a new team and learning new ways, new controls and now he’s gone through the whole learning process and he’s going to hit the ground running. There’s no more excuses, for sure.”