In the wake of comments made by Bernie Ecclestone, Mercedes technical director, James Allison says he has no doubt about Lewis Hamilton's motivation.

Ever the s**t-stirrer, the former F1 supremo had admitted surprise that the seven-time world champion failed to deliver a single win last season, suggesting that had Max Verstappen would have secured at least one win with the W14.

"Hamilton failed a bit," Ecclestone told Bild. "Russell wasn't as good as he thought he was either," he added for good measure. "Still, they shouldn't have lost so dramatically."

Referring to Red Bull, which won all but one race, Ecclestone said: "They have patiently endured Mercedes dominance, replacing each weak link one by one, developing the best team, the best design, the best car and the best driver.

"Christian Horner has done an excellent job," he added, referring to the man it is believed he was looking to promote as his successor. "Max is currently the benchmark in every field. You could put him in a McLaren, and probably a Ferrari or a Mercedes, and he would still win."

At Mercedes, Allison is in no doubt about Hamilton's motivation, or indeed any of the other 19 drivers on the grid.

"I think you'd struggle to find a driver anywhere in the grid that wasn't motivated," he tells Autosport. "I think that sort of comes with the territory with them, and generally speaking, the more successful a driver has been, the more sort of inescapable that compulsive need to win is.

"In Lewis's case, it's just a core part of who he is, so there's no doubt about his motivation to get back to winning ways. But whether or not he can do that, will be much more in the hands of the equipment we've given him than in his own hands. He's always had that ability there."

With the launch just a few weeks away, Allison admits that at this particular point Hamilton and his teammate are essentially just bystanders.

"Both drivers, their role over the winter is very largely to look after their physical condition," he says, "make sure that they're mentally prepared and just stay in touch with us about our successes and failures as we are going through the hoops of getting the car specified, built, tested and ready for them.

"It isn't really a part of the year where they can have anything other than an observing role with what we're doing," he adds.

"Once the car is running and once the car is talking to us, the person that is the interpreter is the driver, and then their voices start to have much greater weight. So over the winter, it's just getting themselves ready for the new challenge."