Lewis Hamilton has promised to "try and take it like a man" if he is beaten to the 2016 drivers' championship by Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton trails Rosberg by 33 points in the championship with four races and 100 points remaining. Rosberg's healthy lead means he does not need to win another race to claim a maiden championship, even if Hamilton is victorious at all four races.
When asked in the Austin press conference how he would feel if Rosberg beat him this year, the reigning champion said: "I will try to take it like a man. You can't win them all. Look at all the world champions in the past who have won and lost championships, it is part of the game.
"I am in a position right now where there are still a lot of points available so I will give it everything I've got and believe anything is possible but then I will move on. Once it is decided and it happens all I can do is shape the future which is next year. Life will move on, we go into next season and hopefully come back stronger."
After acknowledging the engine problems which have plagued his season Hamilton also confessed there have been areas he has failed to maximise in 2016.
"We would always be having close battles, all of us here, if all things were equal ... whatever our scenarios are there would be a certain result. Obviously this year it's been a little bit different in terms of how our performances have been, particularly mechanically, and there's nothing you can do about that.
"Out of the ten times the car has been good, whatever it is, I've often done the job with it. But then there definitely has been a few that in the first few seconds of the race hasn't gone that well, but that's racing sometimes."
There was a lot of anticipation surrounding the press conference following Suzuka, where Hamilton played on his phone throughout the Thursday session and then refused to take media questions on Saturday after qualifying on pole. In Austin Hamilton asked Romain Grosjean, sitting behind him, to take a picture of himself and Nico Hulkenberg and Sebastian Vettel but kept his phone use to a minimum.