Sebastian Vettel says he always drives as aggressively as possible, but his deficit in the championship to Lewis Hamilton will warrant some extra risk-taking this weekend in Austin.
With just three races left on the 2018 schedule, Hamilton will need to outscore Vettel by eight points to secure his fifth world title.
Needless to say, the odds are stacked against the Ferrari driver this weekend, which is why his approach will necessarily include an extra dose of aggression.
"I think it's simple for us, we're quite some points behind so we have to focus on winning and then see what the others are doing," said Vettel on Thursday.
"It's quite straightforward for us, to be honest. I always try to win and I think you have to be aggressive to win, and of course, you need to find the right balance.
"You never try to do something silly or not to finish, because that way you can't win," he added.
"I know what it takes, I know what to do, so in that regard, it's fairly similar, but for sure we know that we need to take a bit more risk because we are not in a position to manage the gap in the championship because we don't have a gap."
While he clings to his championship hopes - or his mathematical chances - Vettel still praised Mercedes for a job well done in the past few races.
"For us, unfortunately, some of the races didn't go our way at all and they were able to benefit from that, but they were very strong benefitting from that," he said.
"It's not just that we stepped aside and they were there -- I think they had to do their job and they did it to get the points. Obviously, it hurt us, but well played to them."
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