Lewis Hamilton has shown his relentless desire to improve by targeting victory in every single race in the 2018 season.

Hamilton secured his fourth F1 World Drivers’ Championship this year with nine race wins in all while new Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas took the team tally to 12.

But the Brit refused to be entirely satisfied with the results given they still failed to win eight races in 2017.

“It has been an amazing season but by no means a perfect one,” said Hamilton.

“There are always areas you can improve on.

“I won nine races and Valtteri Bottas won three - but there are 20 races and a perfect season is when you win every single one of them.”

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McLaren have revealed they feared they would begin to shed key staff if they retained their Honda partnership for another year.

The team were staring down the barrel of losing superstar driver Fernando Alonso, who repeatedly and publicly slammed the underperforming power unit in the McLaren car.

And while the Spaniard subsequently signed a new contract when McLaren confirmed their termination of Honda’s contract and the switch to Renault engine supply, team boss Eric Boullier has admitted Alonso was not the only one they were worried about using.

"I obviously warned [Honda] about the consequences of another year of no results, where you keep everybody afloat,” Boullier said.

"We have a new team, which has been reconstructed in the last three years: new people, very good new people - competitive people who are used to winning - and the danger was we'd lose them."

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Haas have shelved plans to expand their team beyond its current size because of fears a salary cap could be brought in when the new F1 contract comes into place in four years’ time.

Haas have finished eighth in the F1 World Constructors’ Championship in both of their two seasons in the series, but achieved 13 top-10 finishes in 2017 compared to just five in 2016.

However, team principal Gunther Steiner is keen to show restraint with the staffing levels with uncertainty over what F1 might look like when the new Liberty Media-brokered contract comes in.

“Before we continue to grow, we need to know at what level there should be a budget cap,” Steiner told German publication Auto Motor und Sport.

“It makes no sense to enlarge the team now and then reduce staff again in 2021.

"I would not have expected that we are so stable in all aspects.

“It's only after the first year that you realise what level is necessary to put it that way in every discipline. We have kept all promises.”