How Hamilton has battled his own mentality

There is a case to suggest Lewis Hamilton put himself on the back foot in his bid for a fourth Formula 1 title before the 2016 season had even started.

That is not to say that from his current back-to-the-wall position - 19 points down with two races to go - he cannot eclipse his hero Ayrton Senna, and equal the haul of Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel, with a fourth world championship.

There is no doubt Hamilton is in the best car on the grid and possesses the talent to overhaul Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, but he now finds himself in a position where a little bit of luck is also required.

Technical problems have undeniably compromised Hamilton, but there were also times this year when they only added to the mental fog he already seemed enveloped in.

When Hamilton clinched his third title with three races to spare in 2015 with victory in the United States Grand Prix, he effectively accomplished all he had set out to do in F1. Idol Senna was a three-time champion and Hamilton had matched that feat by the age of 30.

That Hamilton switched off in the final part of 2015 was all too evident. His job was done and it was time to party, to allow the tension of nine years of hard work to wash away.

Meanwhile Rosberg was free to regain some momentum by ending 2015 with three straight victories from pole, soothing the sting of another title defeat.

The winter break gave both drivers chance to hit the reset button and consign all that to history.

But pre-season a change was made within Mercedes. At the time it seemed significant, and as the year has rolled on the enormity of its implications on Hamilton's mindset has become all too clear.

Mercedes opted to break up the team of mechanics that was a key component of Hamilton's title triumphs the previous two years, switching five of his crew - including his number one mechanic - over to Rosberg's side of the garage, and vice versa.

Having bemoaned their departure early in the season, Hamilton brought the matter up again before the recent Malaysian Grand Prix, after Rosberg had reeled off three successive wins since the summer break.

"Mechanics don't have an effect on set-up," said Hamilton.

"The biggest effect it can have really on the driver is psychologically, but that is not something I want to go into."

Pressed on the exact nature of that effect, he did expand a little: "Just all-round psychologically.

"If something changes when it doesn't really need to be changed, it can have all sorts of effects."

That, in a nutshell, gives you an idea of the mental approach Hamilton brought into 2016: up against it even before a wheel had been turned.

Not only had his team-mate and greatest rival ended the previous year with three-straight race wins, but now he had acquired a significant portion of Hamilton's championship winning crew, while Hamilton had taken on board personnel he may have felt were part of 'the losing side'.

Not that there were any losers inside Mercedes at the end of 2015 given the team clinched a second successive constructors' championship, with every member of the near-1500 staff playing their part.

But for someone like Hamilton, whose almost-sole focus is the drivers' championship, such thoughts would have been inevitable.

Of course, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff dismissed Hamilton's remarks on the change of crew, effectively stating, 'I'm in charge, and I'll do as I please'.

"No football player would tell Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola who he'd like to play with. It's the manager's call to decide who is in the squad," said Wolff at the time.

"I understand that as a driver you want the perfect cocoon, but it's about how we [Mercedes] can develop 1500 people - not one."

If you throw in the bad starts from pole in the opening two grands prix in Australia and Bahrain - both won by Rosberg - and then the engine issues in qualifying in the following two races in China and Russia, it would be no surprise if Hamilton felt at a low ebb psychologically.

As legendary Olympic athlete Michael Johnson once remarked: "The mind is absolutely essential in achieving results, even for athletes.

"Sports psychology is a very small part, but it's extremely important when you're winning and losing races by hundredths, and even thousandths of a second."

Despite being someone who has always worn his heart on his sleeve, Hamilton has never found cause to employ a sports psychologist.

In 2014, Mercedes brought in Dr Ceri Evans, a qualified psychologist and psychiatrist who had worked with the New Zealand All Blacks rugby union team, to review procedures and practices throughout the Chinese GP of that year. Hamilton was instantly dismissive.

"I've never had it, never needed it and never will have it, so we'll never speak of it again unless I start going crazy," said Hamilton when quizzed on the subject of psychological support.

Although Hamilton could understand Mercedes' motives for bringing in Evans, he added: "For me, as a driver, it's not something I feel I need because since I was eight years old I've won every championship I've competed in, and all I've needed is me and my family."

Yet there have been many occasions since Hamilton entered F1 in 2007 when we have seen him struggle with what can only be described as inner demons.

Hamilton is a tremendous self-motivator, but there have also been times when he has appeared emotionally lost and vulnerable - sometimes to such an extent you half-wondered whether he would throw in the towel and walk away.

We witnessed that 'darker' side in Japan a few weeks ago, initially when a bored Hamilton took to Snapchat during the FIA's regular Thursday driver press conference to post pictures of himself and Carlos Sainz Jr in cartoon form.

It was humourous to a degree, but moreover it was completely disrespectful. Not only to those around him, but also the FIA, the assembled media, and those watching the live broadcast at home.

There is an argument for suggesting the staid format of the press conference had forced a weary Hamilton's hand, and that he was trying to inject some fun. But that's another subject for another time.

And then there was his bizarre walkout from a media session after qualifying, taking just one question. And even then that was asking what was on his mind after Hamilton sat silently for several seconds, clearly musing on something, while drumming the table in front of him with his fingers.

Citing the 'Snapprat' headlines and stories that followed his antics two days earlier, Hamilton made it clear he would be limiting his media engagements from that moment on, before exiting stage left.

The fact he had failed to inform anyone inside Mercedes of that plan, in particular the team's director of communications, again showed a lack of respect.

Hamilton even blocked a number of journalists he felt particularly offended by on his Twitter account, although he later claimed he does not control that element of his social media personally.

In these moments, where was the focus, commitment and drive Hamilton has been renowned for over the years?

Some suggested it was a meltdown, but that was far from the case.

Instead, and not for the first time, it was Hamilton simply letting outside influences affect his thinking, and ultimately his form, at a time when he needed to be singularly concentrating on catching Rosberg - whose form Wolff felt would bring out the best in Hamilton.

Following his Spanish GP clash with Rosberg, Hamilton had majestically hunted his team-mate down and turned a 43-point deficit into a 19-point lead entering the summer break.

The negative points started to stack up again after that - start/clutch difficulties, power unit problems - and with it the doubts returned, underlined by those comments about his mechanics at Sepang.

You felt the blown engine that followed when he was on course to win the Malaysian GP was the final straw in a season where Hamilton has felt things have been against him all along, contributing to his amusing yet bemusing behaviour in Japan.

There are times when everyone, no matter how mentally strong they think they are, needs a psychological helping hand.

In Hamilton's case, I'm not talking about him listening to the plethora of platitudes from his million followers on Twitter and Facebook. Telling him how wonderful he is, how he doesn't need the media, that Mercedes has been against him this year.

If for one second Hamilton believes such remarks then he is not half the man I've thought he is these past few years.

Nor should Hamilton listen to his A-list, B-list and C-list entourage of friends he has accrued in recent times, who only see the partying star he has become, not the driver we have come to admire.

And nor am I suggesting he enlists the services of the likes of Dr Ceri Evans. If he does not believe in such professional aides, then they're not for him.

Instead, there is only one person Hamilton should listen to, and that is himself. He needs to be more determined in pushing any negative outside forces to one side.

Hamilton will hopefully recognise the mental game he has tortured himself with this season has been nothing more than that - a game.

In these last two grands prix in the United States and Mexico, Hamilton has stopped playing and fought his way out of his mental trough.

It may have come too late to save his 2016 title ambitions, but he would do well to learn the psychological lessons of what has transpired these past few weeks and over the season in general.

He needs to realise he can be his own worst enemy at times, when the real enemies are the 21 other drivers around him on any given Sunday.