Lewis Hamilton has admitted he cannot lose any more ground on rival Sebastian Vettel as they enter the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend.

Vettel is looking to build on his perfect start to the season which has seen the German clinch Australian and Bahrain GP titles, becoming the first Ferrari driver to win two opening races since 2004.

Hamilton now finds himself 17 points adrift from the Ferrari racer following his third-place finish in Bahrain after recovering from a ninth-place position and also having victory snatched from him in Australia as Vettel stole first place.

Despite the Brit having won the Chinese GP a record five times he told Sky Sports reporters he cannot afford to fall further behind.

"It's always been a good track for me. So I really hope that I'm able to climb the ladder and get back to where we've been working towards being in the last two races," Hamilton said. "There are good things to come, but I am 17 points behind and I can't afford to lose any more points to Sebastian."

'We can't afford to lose any races to Ferrari'

Following Mercedes radio problems in Bahrain, when Hamilton’s radio failed to work properly leading to his team struggling to hear the driver, the four-time world champion continued to tell Sky Sports his team must improve communication.

He said: "It is very marginal now and so really magnifies the importance of communication and these small little things that can make a difference of seven points or not.

“We can't afford to be losing any races to Ferrari and so we need to get ourselves in a place where we are not only strong in our operations in the car, but also we're in the race.

"Strategy was great [in Bahrain], but to make the strategy work, we need to make sure we are on the same understanding about what we have to do."

Hamilton was victorious in last year's Chinese GP with Vettel not winning on the Shanghai track since 2009.