Lewis Hamilton does not believe teammate Nico Rosberg has dramatically changed his approach this year, despite his rival holding a 26-point lead over him in the drivers' championship with just three races remaining.
Rosberg has won nine races this year -- compared to the six he won in 2015 and the five he won in 2014 -- and could claim the title this weekend if he wins and Hamilton finishes tenth or lower. But when asked if he had seen a change in Rosberg's approach this year, Hamilton, who has never been beaten by Rosberg over a season, said: "Nope. But I've had a lot of [mechanical] failures. That's the only difference."
Hamilton had a series of power unit failures this year, impacting on his qualifying at the Russian, Chinese and Belgian Grands Prix as well as forcing him to retire from the lead at the Malaysian Grand Prix. He believes that without those failures, this season would have gone the same way as his title-winning years in 2014 and 2015.
"I think if both our cars had been fully reliable all year long we would have had pretty much the same battle we've had all last year and the year before, so I don't see it being any different."
Rosberg has consistently said he is only focusing on the race at hand and not the championship. Hamilton says that is his teammate's way of dealing with the pressure of leading the title race.
"That is just a tactic that he has taken on board this year. Obviously that helps him stay focused on the job at hand and different people have different ways of dealing with pressure. Obviously there is pressure there and that's just how he's handling it."
Hamilton's best chance of claiming the title is to win the three remaining races and hope Rosberg slips up.
"I have to win all the races," Hamilton added. "I knew that at the last race, so people can interpret it anyway they want, but I know that I've got to win and I'm just going to try to do the best job I can in terms of getting in my car, qualifying and driving time on the track. I'll really try to apply everything I've learned over these years, and if there was ever a time for me to be the best I've ever been, it's at these last three races."