“I'll be hoping for dry weather for another reason, too – Japan is one of season's best races, and it would be nice for fans to be able to enjoy the atmosphere.”

Former Ferrari ace and F1 World Championship runner-up Eddie Irvine, meanwhile, has backed Hamilton to shine over the final three races – tipping the Briton to benefit from the wisdom he learned in 2007, when he surrendered a 17-point lead over Kimi Raikkonen in the last two outings of the season to ultimately miss out on the laurels by a single marker.

“It was like he took his brain out and said 'let's have an accident',” mused Irvine – no stranger to controversy himself – when talking about Hamilton's late-season form in 2007 in an interview with Sky Sports. “This year will be different.

“Lewis will have learned from what happened, but you have to remember he was only 22 then – and you remember what you were like at 22!”