While Lewis Hamilton has eschewed having the number 1 on his car - other than Abu Dhabi in 2018 after securing his fifth title - instead sticking with his beloved 44, championship leader, Max Verstappen would "absolutely" jump at the opportunity to sport it.

"Absolutely," he replied when asked today if he would drop his number 33 for the world champion's #1, should he win the title.

"How many times do you have the opportunity to drive with number 1?" he continued. "And it's good for merchandise as well, you know? So, it's smart to do that."

Indeed, after seven seasons of Mercedes, and Lewis Hamilton, domination, the Dutchman is only too aware that such opportunities don't present themselves too often.

"How many times do you have this opportunity?" he said. "You don't know. Maybe from next year you don't get that opportunity again. So, I'm just really enjoying the moment.

"I'm just really focused," he continued, "in four races a lot of things can happen. We are looking good now, but things can change very quickly.

"I said after the race in Mexico, I've had a bigger lead already in the championship but that disappeared within two races weekends, so we have to again try to do the best we can here and again we will try to win the race."

Asked if he considers 2021 to have been his best season to date, he replied: "In general, it's been really good. Of course, I'm never happy and I'll always try to improve, but I can't complain about how the season has been going so far in terms of just personal performance.

"But this is also something I expect from myself, so there is nothing really shocking about that," he added.

Other than the win in 2019, when F1 lasr visited Interlagos, Verstappen has been on the podium in 2016 and 2018, with many tipping the Dutchman to prove victorious again this weekend.

"It's been quite good to us in the past," he said, "so I'm looking forward to being here again. Of course, a lot has changed from 2019 but I do think we can do a good job.

"There are not many corners around here but, of course, with the altitude still being a bit high, that is normally good for us.

"If you look back at '19 it was quite a tough battle with Lewis anyway, so I expect the same again."

Check out our Thursday gallery from Interlagos, here.