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Lewis Hamilton believes that none of the drivers in the fight for the championship has a significant advantage over the others heading into the season's second half.
Despite failing to score at the last two races, the Briton believes that his current position in the drivers' standings, 10 points adrift of Felipe Massa, is not a cause for concern.
"I think that this year's title race is really close - probably even closer than last year's," he told the official Formula 1 website.
"There isn't one driver who's comfortably ahead; I've had a few no-scores but so have the two Ferrari drivers.
"I think consistency is going to be important as we head into the second half of the season, but I'm only 10 points behind Massa and the maths is clear: you can make that up in a single race if all the cards fall in the right way."
Looking ahead to the British Grand Prix, Hamilton believes that recent developments on his McLaren during testing will put him in contention with the Ferraris that dominated the last grand prix in France.
"Ferrari will be strong, but not unbeatable," he said.
"I got to try out some promising new aero upgrades and some improvements to the fuel and lubricants.
"They're only little things, but that's where you can make a difference.
"We've got a great package, we've worked hard on performance in high-speed corners and I'm confident ahead of the race."
Hamilton targeted a first F1 win at Silverstone at the start of the season and said he is looking forward to driving in front of his home crowd.
"Silverstone will be one of the highlights of my year and I hope I can make it special," he said.
"Winning your home race is something every driver wants to achieve.
"When I started the season my idea was to win the first race, to win Monte Carlo, and to win my home grand prix, so I'm ready for the challenge at Silverstone."
Source: ITV.com/f1
Fernando Alonso has labelled the increased in superlicence fees as "ridiculous" and says the Grand Prix Drivers' Association is discussing its response to the change.
Last year drivers had to pay €1,725 (£1,286) plus €456 (£340) per point scored in the previous year's championship for the mandatory superlicence, but from this season that figure has risen to €10,000 (£7,452) plus €2,000 (£1,490) per point scored in 2007.
FIA president Max Mosley believes the change was necessary so that drivers were making an adequate contribution to funding safety improvements.
However GPDA director Alonso has hit out at the extent of the price hike.
"I think it is a ridiculous amount," he told reporters in Franace.
"We drivers should pay our superlicence at a reasonable price, that's all.
"It cannot change by one thousand percent from one year to another."
There have been rumours in the Magny-Cours paddock that the drivers are considering strike action - a prospect that Alonso did not rule out.
"I think we have not many possibilities, but for sure it's one of the things we are talking about in the GPDA," he said.
"Maybe we need to do something all together, because as a group we have much more [influence] than one single person."
But world champion Kimi Raikkonen believes strike action is unlikely.
"Of course it's better if it's not so expensive and it's the same for everybody, but I don't think there's any reason to go on strike and not race," he said.
"I don't think that's the right way to go but it would be nice if we could reduce it.
"It's never going to happen that all the drivers will strike.
"Hopefully there is some nice solution that can be found at some point."
Alonso said he is not only pushing for a reduction from 2009, but for the sums already paid this year to be refunded.
"We need to find an agreement, for this year as well," he told ITV Sport's Ted Kravitz
"What we paid already for 2008, maybe we need to have a refund or something, because it was something ridiculous.
"All the drivers agree about this, so hopefully we can put some efforts into that."
Championship leader Robert Kubica added that he was uncomfortable with the fact that drivers who scored fewer points had to pay a lower fee, as drivers' wages did not always match their scoring rate.
"It's quite a lot of money, especially if you are scoring points like Lewis (Hamilton) did last year and it's your first year in Formula 1," he said.
"But another point is that experienced drivers who don't have a quick car are not scoring points, so they don't care because they don't have to pay.
"So I think it will be difficult to get all drivers to have the same idea but we are trying to convince the FIA to reduce the cost."
Kubica added that he was fully supportive of the FIA's safety initiatives and happy to help fund them, but just wanted to see an equal superlicence price for everyone on the grid.
"The FIA is saying that it goes to safety and I agree, safety is very important, so in the end, if the standard of safety can improve, we should pay for it," he said.
"My case last year and Heikki Kovalainen's (accident) this year in Barcelona show that the FIA is making a great effort and doing a very good job in safety.
"But then I don't see the point why some drivers have to pay more and some others not.
"In the end, we are all on the same track driving F1 cars."
Source: ITV.com/f1
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