Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insists Lewis Hamilton performs at his best when the pressure is on, and is expecting the title race to go down to the wire.
Hamilton's championship hopes have taken two devastating blows in the last week, retiring with an engine failure in Malaysia before finishing third in Japan to allow team-mate Nico Rosberg to stretch his lead to 33 points.
The Martin Brundle column: Finding the real Lewis Hamilton
But Wolff was quick to point out the many changes of momentum so far this season, and claims the Brit has proved in the past that he can recover when his back is against the wall.
"Lewis is going to regroup, he's very strong," said Wolff. "He needs the enemy, sometimes more than one, that's just how he functions. He's at his best when he's under pressure, when he has a target.
"I have no doubt that this is going to be an intense fight until the end."
The world champion may be able to take solace from his previous comebacks in 2016. Rosberg held a 43-point advantage following the Russian and Spanish grands prix before Hamilton won six of the next seven races to take the title lead into the summer break.
But with victories in all of the remaining four races of the season still not necessarily enough for Hamilton, the Brit realistically needs his team-mate to encounter mechanical problems at least once.
"Nico is doing everything right at the moment," admitted Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda. "If everything is going normal, the championship could be decided in the next few races, and Lewis won't be able to catch Nico any more.
"This is perfectly clear to me. If nothing happens to either car, I don't think Lewis will be able to turn it around again."
Hamilton flew back to Europe from Japan with Wolff and Lauda on Sunday night, but the Mercedes team boss said they would not be dissecting the events of Suzuka with Hamilton straight away. Problems both on and off the track, namely another disastrous start and a media row, marred the Brit's Japanese GP weekend.
"We need to calm down and find out what happened, regroup," added Wolff. "In my learning from the last couple of years, 24 hours later things look completely different than they appear an hour after the race. So our main emphasis will be on building him up and just enjoying the ride home [from Japan].
"We have 10 days, it's not such a rush like last week. He's going to come back strong in Austin."
Don't miss The F1 Report's review of the Japanese GP on Sky Sports F1 at 8.30pm on Wednesday evening