Dennis: Hamilton will be in F1 next year

Dennis has helped guide Hamilton's career since karting and, on the back of his front-running form in GP2 this year, he believes that the youngster is now ready to make the step up to F1 in 2007.

"Lewis's first step is to succeed in GP2 and then we will guide him to the next and highest level," Dennis was quoted as saying to the Times.

"Will he be in Formula One next year? I believe he will be. With which team? I don't know yet."

Hamilton is an obvious candidate to join McLaren next year, but he has also been singled out as a possible future target by Renault boss Flavio Briatore.

Another possibility is with the new McLaren-backed Direxiv team, who are considering entering F1 in 2007.

Dennis said over the Monaco Grand Prix weekend that Hamilton was definitely an option for his team, but claimed it was too early to make any firm commitment about who would partner Fernando Alonso.

"Obviously our own driver line-up is still open in respect of one of the two seats," Dennis said. "Many people ask, is there any possibility of him (Hamilton) driving? Well, it's not impossible but it's just one of the options.

"We don't know whether either of the drivers will stay with us or go, it's just too early in the season to make those sort of decisions.

"When we have to take a decision, we will."