Motivation key to Hamilton in 2017 - Palmer

Jolyon Palmer says Lewis Hamilton's motivation will be key to whether the triple world champion performs in 2017.

Hamilton lost out on the drivers' championship to team-mate Nico Rosberg for the first time this year, with Rosberg immediately retiring from F1 after his success. Despite losing his title, Palmer says Hamilton's approach has so far been successful and 2016 showed there are aspects which are out of the driver's hands.

"So long as he's motivated, he'll be strong," Palmer told the BBC. "He enjoys more of life outside Formula 1 than a lot of other drivers.

"At the moment he is very competitive with it and is able to combine Formula 1 with quite an elaborate lifestyle outside of the car. But you still need the right circumstances. You need a good team behind you and you need to have a reliable car for the year to do it - it's not just up to him."

And Palmer says Hamilton needs to take advantage of any opportunities 2017 provides, warning there are no guarantees he will end up with more championships just based on his talent.

"The Red Bull guys are coming stronger and stronger. If you look at Fernando Alonso, he was the youngest ever champion and won two in a row. No-one would have been thinking 10 years on he would still have only won two championships.

"Even though, at a certain time, you can be the best driver in the best car, it doesn't mean you can keep on winning those championships."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.