Alain Prost, the four-time Formula One world champion, believes Lewis Hamilton will use the experience of last year's narrow defeat to inspire him to the drivers' championship this season.

The 23-year-old Englishman led the championship for the majority of last season, but was eventually pipped to the title by Kimi Raikkonen, the Ferrari driver, who took advantage of Hamilton's mechanical problems to snatch victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix by one point.

However, Prost, who won 51 Grand Prix races, believes the experience will only strengthen Hamilton's resolve tp come back stronger.

"I think Lewis will be the top guy," he said. "If he has a good car, I don't think it should be a problem. He has more experience now. We are going to see how he is going to handle this extra pressure."

"I lost the championship in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 by a few points and at one time, I said to myself it must be that I cannot win the championship - and then I won it four times later on. If you have everything together, you have plenty of time."

Prost predicted Hamilton's closest title challengers would once again come from Ferrari, who won the constructors' championship, and Renault, who will be spearheaded by Hamilton's former teammate Fernando Alonso.

"The Ferrari will always be there, so we don't know about Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa - it depends on whether Kimi has the same motivation or not," he said. "Fernando Alonso will be just a little bit behind, but quite close."

The Formula 1 season gets underway in Melbourne on March 16.