Nico Rosberg says it’s much too soon to start thinking how he might pick himself up and challenge Lewis Hamilton next season after his 2015 title bid finally came to an end at the US GP.
Rosberg only had himself to blame for the outcome at the Circuit of The Americas, as he had led his Mercedes team-mate and title rival with eight laps to go.
Shortly after a Safety Car re-start, however, the German ran wide through Turn 16 allowing Hamilton to sweep past and on to his third World Championship.
As Hamilton sat jubilant in the press conference afterwards, describing his emotions and comparing the feeling of winning multiple titles with third-placed Sebastian Vettel, Rosberg sat stony faced.
It's become a familiar sight in a season Hamilton has dominated with 10 wins, and his fellow Silver Arrow is still digesting what might have been rather than thinking about what could be - and whether he needs to take his approach back to the drawing board.
"I haven't thought about that yet," he said. "I'm still in today and today's a disappointment. I don't know.
"Whatever happens in the past doesn't change me going forward. It's always full attack, big push, that's the way I am."
It was paying off until lap 48, by which point Rosberg had led more laps than Hamilton, despite falling to fifth place from pole position on lap one after the pair touched at the first corner.
But in a race that moved from wet to dry conditions, and which also saw Red Bull pair Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat fight for the lead in the early stages, Rosberg came back and was P1 again by lap 22.
He seemed in better shape than Hamilton, who was struggling with his tyres by comparison, and it looked like the title battle would move on to next weekend's Mexican GP.
However, shortly after a Safety Car caused by Kvyat's crash, Rosberg made his crucial error. "I just got wheelspin," he explained. "It's never happened to me, ever, not even in testing or racing.
"I'm assuming that it's a mistake that I made, just getting too much wheelspin, going away on the cold tyres, the tyres weren't fully up to temperature yet, but it felt very, very strange.
"That was really, really tough at the time, to lose the lead like that and to lose the win, because I was feeling really good at that point and it just went wrong."
Rosberg described Hamilton's move on the opening lap as "extremely aggressive. We hit each other, or I would say Lewis came into me, so obviously that's not good. I can't say more than that."
He also brushed off an incident just before the podium ceremony, when threw back and hit Hamilton with a Pirelli cap the world champion had tossed his way.
"That was just some games," Rosberg added. "Nothing more than that."