Lewis Hamilton has suggested this weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be the last race in Formula 1 with good looking cars before the introduction of the Halo cockpit protection in 2018.

The Briton has been one of the more open-minded drivers when it comes to the what many claim is a device that will end open cockpit racing, suggesting he would be happy to race with it when he, along with the rest of the grid, tested it in Practice sessions in 2016.

However, the Mercedes driver remains very unhappy with the visual impact it has on the cars and made his point clear when asked in the press conference on Thursday.

"It's the last of the years where it looks good, the last race where it'll look good," Hamilton said. "I think from next year it's all downhill [but] safety will go up at least. Maybe I'll start a new flip-flop brand next year and be successful in some way."

With him in front of the media was Sebastian Vettel and offering his thoughts, the Ferrari driver saw Halo as like many visual features on F1 cars in years and believes after some time it will be less controversial.

"I think the cars will look different next year, everything I've seen so far looks different," he commented. "But on the other hand, I think it's something we'll get used to, no doubt the cars look better the way they are now.

"We'll work on the aesthetics so it'll look fine as well, so in the end, it's probably less of a big deal."

As for the impact of Halo, German journalist Tobias Gruner tweeted pictures of Valtteri Bottas struggling to exit his car with the device attached during a test with FIA delegate Jo Bauer. The Finn needed several moments to work out how to simply grab hold of the bar to pull himself up before eventually getting out but it would have taken much longer than the usual five-second rule.

Teams are also still grappling with how best to incorporate the Halo into their 2018 designs, as Williams Technical Director Paddy Lowe explained.

"It's a big project to put that in the car," he told Motorsport.com. "We're still working on it, and the integration is quite difficult. There are very high loads to accommodate, so I think the bigger impact is structural rather than aerodynamic."

"Probably the major area is how efficiently you can provide the mounting requirements to meet the loads – how much weight do you have to throw at that problem? Because it's all weight," the Briton added.

"There are some minor aerodynamic effects. We haven't seen it as a huge project – the detriment is not particularly large. There is some room for manoeuvre there, but not a lot."