Briatore: Hamilton will throw it away

Last year, the McLaren driver lost out to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by one point despite having a 17-point gap with just two races to go.

Hamilton leads Ferrari rival Felipe Massa by five points with two races left, including this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai, where the McLaren driver made a costly mistake last year and ended up stuck in the gravel.

Briatore is convinced Hamilton will not win the title this year either.

"In my opinion Hamilton will try again to throw away the title," Briatore was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport. "He and McLaren were good last year already: to lose it with a 17-point advantage with two races to go is worthy of the Guinness World Records.

"If someone gets in the Guinness like that, he can really repeat himself with just five points of advantage. In my opinion Massa will win the title."

He added: "Hamilton hasn't learned anything: we saw that in Japan. He should be told he is an F1 driver, not a martian. He is no Muhammad Ali. He is a youngster who still has to show his worth.

"He's a good driver, but the good drivers are also the ones that bring the results home. There are good forwards in football who always hit the post or the crossbar, and they just can't score. Then there are those who can throw it inside the net, and he is not one of them, for now.

"It's logical for me to root for Ferrari, as an Italian, as Flavio Briatore, and as Renault, for the relationship we have with Ferrari. McLaren, by contrast, accused us of espionage: we went on for four months for a silly thing that didn't exist."