There was no debate about whether we could win. We kept going until it was mathematically impossible for us to win.
I'm defining winning as being champions, it's only you who regard 2nd place as winning. The comparison with F1 doesn't stack up, in that sport 2nd place is significant in terms of points which go towards the championship, in football it makes no difference, you're either champions or you're not.
The only other way we could win after the title was gone last year was to finish the job in the Cup and we did.