Mercedes and Hamilton on brink of F1 titles

Ferrari therefore needs to score 17 points more than Mercedes on Sunday, but if Hamilton or Bottas wins, the Silver Arrows squad will head to Mexico as world champions.

He was fourth in Austin past year, when Mercedes had a one-two finish.

The German manufacturer would win its fourth title in succession if it leaves Austin with at least a 129-point lead.

"I would happily give up my job to come work here", Hamilton said.

Everything is also stacking up for Hamilton to become only the fifth driver to win more than three championships since the first in 1950, with British bookmakers offering odds of 1/50 on him taking the title.

Vettel has failed to finish two of the last three races in Asia, one due to a first lap collision and the other a spark plug problem, and can not afford any further unreliability on Ferrari's part.

Mercedes now enjoys a 145-point lead over the Scuderia.

With temperatures forecast to continue at around 30 degrees Celsius it may be that conditions favour Ferrari's faster, but less reliable auto at a track that Hamilton, chasing a sixth overall United States GP win, relishes.

The 32-year-old, who leads the F1 Drivers' standings from nearest rival Sebastian Vettel by 59 points ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix, shared his visit on Instagram.

But when referring to Vettel and his points deficit, Glock said: "He has nothing left to lose". Vettel won with Red Bull in 2013.

"Their vehicle is on par or better than Mercedes on many tracks", said Glock. If Vettel can stay in contention after this weekend, the good news for him is that Ferrari should be competitive - if not stronger than Mercedes - at two of the remaining three rounds, with Mercedes pinpointing Mexico as a venue for potential struggles. As Singapore and the following two races proved, anything is possible in a sport as technical and dramatic as Formula One but, unless Hamilton goes on some kind of disastrous run, it looks like a fourth world championship will be heading the Briton's way.