Lewis Hamilton is doing his homework for Singapore and won't leave any stone unturned at a venue where Mercedes is expected to struggle against its rivals.
After achieving back to back wins at Spa and Monza, the thee-time world champion now leads the world championship from arch-rival Sebatsian Vettel for the very first time in 2017, albeit by just three points.
But Mercedes' trend this season of giving up pace to Ferrari on higher-downforce, slower tracks such as Singapore's Marina Bay is boosting Hamilton's vigilance, although the Mercedes driver won't let a dim view take over his mind.
"Currently that’s not my mind-state, no, and I will do all the due diligence it’s possible to make sure that we arrive there best prepared," says Hamilton.
"We have no idea until we get there what the picture’s going to look like but I think we learned a lot from the past but on a hot track, Ferrari are often better in hot places.
"I think we’ll be able to give them a good race."
The 32-year-old who has racked up six wins so far this year, against four for Vettel, insists his Mercedes W08's performance is still ascending as the German outfit extracts more of its potential.
"I think the car is continuing to improve and our understanding of the car is beginning to… it’s constantly improving.
"Perhaps if we went back to Hungary for example, maybe we would be in a better position today with the knowledge of being there already.
"I go and approach it with a real positive mind-set that we are going to be fighting for a win but if that’s not the case when we get there we’ll just take it at face value and try to get damage limitation, I guess."
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