Coulthard on where Lewis drives next year

Where will Lewis Hamilton be driving next year? That's the question that's dominated Formula 1 over the past week or two. So McLaren or Mercedes? What's it to be?

What's happening with Lewis and his management at the moment is no different to what any driver goes through at the point at which he is negotiating a new deal with a team or teams. This one, though, has all of a sudden become very public for one reason or another.

It's absolutely normal for a driver - or a driver's manager - to investigate what opportunities exist at contract time. I did it and I know everyone else worth their salt in F1 was doing it, too

For a start, you can never be sure your existing team wants to keep you - as I found out when McLaren signed Juan Pablo Montoya over a year before I left- and secondly, you need to be sure that there's not a team at which you'd be better suited in terms of achieving your goals.

My priority was always to be in the team and the car that would give me the best possible chance of winning races and having a shot at the world title, and it was obvious to me that for nine years, that meant staying at McLaren.

All things come to an end though and my relationship with them had just about run its course by the time I moved to Red Bull Racing. The problem is that when you're together for that length of time, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep the relationship fresh.

And when things aren't going your way, it's human nature to wonder what else might be out there.

I don't know what Lewis's priority is. If he wants to win races and titles then he should stay with McLaren, because historically they've had a far better strike rate at doing that than Mercedes. If he wants to be an individual and continue to build 'Lewis Hamilton the brand', then maybe he'd have more freedom to do that with Mercedes.

Of course most of F1's greats- Schumacher, Prost, Mansell, Senna, Piquet and Fangio - switched teams and remained frontrunners, even if the move seemed like a backwards step at first. There's no reason why a driver with Lewis Hamilton's ability couldn't do the same thing.

Let's not forget either that the one man throughout all of this who is remaining focused on the driving task is Lewis himself, and he's performing sufficiently well to suggest that his contract isn't at the forefront of his mind.

Expect the rivalry to crank-up a notch in Singapore © LAT

Vettel v Alonso

For my money, Sebastian Vettel was extremely unfortunate to receive a penalty for his 'move' on Fernando Alonso at Monza, and I know that goes against the grain in terms of what a lot of people inside the paddock think.

I think it's pretty clear from watching the replays that Seb sticks to the racing line at Curva Grande, and that Fernando makes a pretty ballsy move around the outside; a move that I wouldn't have made unless I was alongside a lot sooner and had forced Seb off line and to the inside.

With Fernando as far alongside as he was, Seb would be able to see the Ferrari on the straight, but when you're on the correct line in a right-hander, you're concentrating on your apex, and you're certainly not waiting for someone to suddenly appear on your left.

Red Bull's dip in form

I'm not convinced that the performances we saw from Red Bull in Belgium and Italy will continue. Yes, qualifying badly somewhere like Singapore has got to be more of a concern than at a track like Monza or Spa, where it's a lot easier to overtake.

The fact that Singapore is a street circuit, and a track most similar to Valencia - where Seb was in a class of his own before the car broke - must give the team confidence of getting back on track.

That said we continue to have an incredible battle for race wins and the title, and somehow Fernando managed to increase his lead at Monza. But the momentum that McLaren has right now will be hard to stop.