Lewis Hamilton says the way in which he lost the 2016 world championship has doubled his desire to win it again next year.
Hamilton lost out on the title to Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by five points this year after a series of reliability issues earlier in the season put him on the backfoot in the championship standings. The battle went down to the final race where Hamilton tried to back his teammate into rival cars in one last bid to swing the championship his way, but ultimately he came up short.
"The team's job is to provide both drivers with equal opportunity," he told Time Magazine in a feature in its forthcoming Year Ahead issue. "And unfortunately, I didn't have equal opportunity, because I had failures on our side of the garage. The other side didn't. So that puts more stress on the importance of myself sucking every ounce of opportunity.
"At the end, that's all I could have done. I didn't do anything dangerous. I didn't put anyone in harm's way. I'd do it again. You're out there to fight."
Rosberg retired following his title success, saying he did not want to continue with his current level of commitment to the sport, but Hamilton says he has no problem finding the motivation to return at his best.
"I'm in a good head space," he added. "I have a process that I need to take into next year. When I lost the championship, the motivation to want to take it back next year became twofold. I now have twice the desire."