McLaren believes Italian GP win will make Lewis Hamilton decide to stay on in 2013

Hamilton has been at the centre of intense speculation for the past few days about his future after former team boss Eddie Jordan claimed the 2008 world champion had agreed a deal to move to Mercedes.

Neither McLaren nor Mercedes have said anything is sorted for 2013, however, and negotiations between Hamilton's current team and his management company XIX Entertainment are expected to take place in the next few days.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said that there was no pressure on his outfit to get the matter finalised before the next race in Singapore but he remained confident about the eventual outcome.

"I don't think it is that important," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT if it would be better to have a deal signed before the next race. "Predicting the timing of when two get to dance is always dangerous.

"We have proven this weekend that there were reasonable attempts to distract and they have failed, so I don't think there is any distraction, and we have got to carry on trying to win races."

Whitmarsh thinks that Hamilton will ultimately realise that his ambitions to win are best served at McLaren, even though other outfits may be able to offer him greater commercial freedom.

"My feeling is that this is a great team for Lewis to stay in," he said. "He has got to want to stay here, and we will figure that one out when we've had some celebrations.

"I think we are working together well. We are a winning team, he is a winning driver and we are a great driver together."

Whitmarsh also said that the outfit was not seriously considering options elsewhere in case Hamilton leaves, following talk that highly rated Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas has emerged as a leading candidate.

"Not really," said Whitmarsh. "I think we are a winning team, Lewis is a winning driver and there is a lot of sense in us working together.

"We have a finite amount of time and I haven't, I hope, wasted any of that on matters other than on working together, having a quick car, winning races and winning championships."

McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis believes that his team's position has been strengthened by it taking a third consecutive victory last weekend.

Speaking to Sky, he said: "It would be totally inappropriate for me to say anything that would undermine Martin's position.

"It's his job to get to where we want to get to and I'm sure he'll have a better position now having demonstrated yet again that we've got a very strong car. If Lewis is absolutely committed to winning then he can win in a McLaren."