Wolff: Hamilton 'needs the enemy' to be at his best in title run-in

Nico Rosberg struck a potentially decisive blow in the title race by winning the Japanese Grand Prix to extend the points gap to 33, meaning he can afford to finish second to Hamilton in all four of the remaining races and still be crowned champion.

But Wolff believes Hamilton, who has endured a tumultuous week on and off track with his retirement from the lead in Malaysia, poor start in Japan and falling out with certain parts of the media this weekend, is at his best when he is on the back foot.

"It's not over, there's four weekends to go," said Wolff. "Lewis is going to regroup.

"We have seen that - remember when Nico won seven races in a row [over 2015-16] and then Lewis had that winning streak [six races from seven mid-season]

"He is very strong, he needs the enemy sometimes. That's how he functions.

"Lewis functions best when he is under pressure and he has a target.

"I have no doubt this will be an intense fight. It's going to go down to the end."

Wolff believes there is no need to rush into talking to Hamilton off the back of two disappointing weekends, instead giving the reigning world champion time to take stock away from the paddock.

"Just after such a race is not the right moment to put the finger where it hurts," said Wolff.

"We need to calm down and find out what happened, regroup.

"My learning from the last couple of years is that 24 hours later things look completely different than they appear an hour after the race.

"So our main emphasis will be building Lewis up. He is going to come back strong.

"We have 10 days before Austin [the US GP], it's not a rush like last week.

"Lewis in Malaysia was really on a roll, dominating the weekend and we let him down with the engine failure.

"During the week he was OK and then all these things around the press conferences, whether it affects him or not, I don't think so.

"It's just not his priority - I wouldn't put it down to that that his start didn't go well.

"His racing was great afterwards, how he recovered was really exceptional."