Lewis Hamilton is being too hard on himself, says Martin Whitmarsh

That is the view of McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh, who says he has already made his views clear to Hamilton that the young Briton should stop feeling so responsible for everything that is happening to him right now.

When asked by AUTOSPORT if he felt Hamilton was being too self critical, Whitmarsh said: "Yes I do, frankly. I've told him that on several occasions. I have said: 'Don't apologise, you're a racing driver. If you've made a mistake accept it, learn from it and move on.'

"He's very analytical. He's very serious abut trying to do the best job he can. He's much too hard on himself. I've known Lewis for a long, long time and he's been like it since he was a karter and he beat up on himself. That's his way. That's his psychology. That's how he motivates himself."

Whitmarsh believes that Hamilton's outlook in India was more positive than it had been in Korea a fortnight ago - despite getting involved in another controversial collision with Felipe Massa.

"I think his body language this weekend has been much stronger than it has been in the last races," he explained. "I thought that a good race here was going to happen. But he still has all the skills. We saw him qualify and race fantastically in the last race and we saw him qualify fantastically here.

"So it could change. It hasn't changed quickly enough for him, or I, or any one of us, but it could change and he could do a brilliant drive in Abu Dhabi and we then move on to a different story."

Although there has been much focus on Hamilton's on-track efforts being influenced by factors in his personal life, Whitmarsh made it clear he did not want to get involved in those matters.

"I've got my own views on that," he said. "But he is a professional racing driver in this team and I will contain my comments to him as a professional racing driver.

"As a professional racing driver he drove brilliantly at the last race. He made a mistake on Friday but he was completely open about it. It's not for me to speculate on his personal life."