Lewis Hamilton today insisted that becoming world champion has not gone to his head, and he will defend his title next season with the same humble determination as a rookie.

Hamilton claimed a maiden championship in only his second Formula One season and the 23-year-old McLaren driver said: "Of course, you have confidence and you're on a high.

"But you can never be too confident or too comfortable. You have to come back down to earth and reset your goals. I'm not going in saying I'm the world champion and it's going to be easy. I have to start again as if I've just come into the sport."

Hamilton, one of the favourites to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award this weekend, was speaking ahead of tonight's FIA gala in Monaco, where he will be officially presented with the F1 championship trophy.

The FIA are expected to rubber-stamp a raft of proposals aimed at slashing costs in F1 today. Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo, who chairs the team's representative body, confirmed there would be "very significant" savings.

Di Montezemolo said: "The economic crisis and the enormous increase of costs in Formula One led the FIA and its president [Max Mosely] to give a strong and right impulse to cut costs as of 2010. The answer we found was beyond all our expectations."

Initiatives are expected to include a standard, fuel-efficient engine plus even stricter restrictions on testing and on wind tunnel work.