Lewis Hamilton says he has not given Nico Rosberg a proper battle so far in 2016 as he looks to overturn an early 36-point deficit to his teammate.
Rosberg has extended his run of victories to six with wins in Australia, Bahrain and China. The last two saw him lead into Turn 1 as collisions occurred behind him, on both occasions forcing rivals into an early pit stop.
"He's done a great job," Hamilton told CNN about Rosberg. "I've not really been in the fight with him, so he's had pretty much a breeze for the last three races. Good for him. Enjoy it while it lasts, because you never know how long it will last."
Hamilton already finds himself 36 points behind his Mercedes teammate, the biggest deficit he has faced to the German since joining in 2013. As he said following his seventh-place finish in China, the world champion is refusing to dwell on the negatives from his opening three races of 2016.
"For sure it's very easy at any point in time in life to look at the negatives at one particular moment and think that all is gone. But there is a long, long way to go. As long as I know I have given absolutely everything that is in my physical power and mental abilities, as long as I've given everything, I can never be upset.
"If you look at Melbourne - the things that we learnt where I dropped down to seventh and got back to second, and still even in Bahrain where I drove from the issue I had back up to third. And then the last one [China] was even worse again, but still I had 18, 19 overtakes which is more than most and hopefully still showed that fighting spirit that I've always had since I was a kid.
"Another 18 races to go, I've still got a great car, I've still got a great team - it's important none of us change anything."