After his convincing win in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton has spoken of how confident he feels about his prospects this season and how he believes that he is a far stronger competitor this year than last.

Talking in Melbourne before flying to Kuala Lumpur, where he will be looking for win No 2 in the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend, Hamilton said that he could hardly believe he is only just starting his second season in Formula One. “It is unreal,” he said. “I have just been talking to my brother and my mum and we’ve been saying that it is difficult to believe I have only been racing in Formula One for a year. But I am so much stronger this year. It is all the stuff I learnt last year and, coming into this race [in Melbourne], as you can see, I was so much at home. I felt very comfortable.”

In recent days the Briton has been compared by Sir Jackie Stewart, the triple world champion, with sporting icons such as Tiger Woods and even Muhammad Ali in terms of the impact that he has made on people worldwide in his first year in motor sport’s elite category.

Hamilton finds the comparisons far-fetched, saying that he can only aspire to emulate such legendary figures. “Bloody hell,” he said, laughing. “That is a bit unreal. I wouldn’t put myself in the league of the likes of Muhammad Ali. If I ever could be as good as him, that would be my aim.”

The 23-year-old sounded confident about his new McLaren Mercedes car and its pace in comparison with the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen, the world champion, and Felipe Massa, neither of whom completed the race in Australia. “I wasn’t worried about the car,” Hamilton said. “If the Ferraris were fast, I was confident that I would be able to fight them. I didn’t think it was going to be a case of they are quicker in the race and we’re much quicker in qualifying.”

Hamilton added that he had more in hand, performance-wise, if he had needed it. “I could have produced it, there is more to come,” he said. “I think, being the opening race, there were a few areas where I took my time. But a lot of people struggled and I am sure not having traction control [electronic driver aids have been banned this year] was behind a lot of the mistakes.”

Hamilton paid tribute to Heikki Kovalainen, his new team-mate from Finland, who drove an impressive debut for McLaren and would have finished second rather than fifth had he not been forced to go into the pits during the third safety car interruption of an eventful race. “He was unlucky not to get a podium,” Hamilton said. “The safety car thing was a pain. I was lucky because I was out in front and they could pull me in.”

He believes that Kovalainen is going to present him with a tough challenge and will not be the walkover that many observers have predicted. “I am sure that if there is a point in a race when we are one-two, it is going to be a great battle,” Hamilton said. “He is pushing me very hard and he has great pace. And I was very impressed with the overtaking moves he did. It was a great move on Fernando Alonso, who is a tough cookie to overtake, that’s for sure.”

Jean Todt has resigned as Ferrari’s chief executive officer and will be replaced by Amedeo Felisa, the general manager. The Frenchman was in charge of the team when the Italian carmaker won six consecutive constructors’ titles from 1999 with Michael Schumacher at the wheel.