Dennis 'maps out' Hamilton's F1 future

"He will be in Formula One, there's no question of that," Dennis told Reuters at the Monaco Grand Prix.

"And I'll be delighted to see him succeed, because it was more an experiment than an investment."

Hamilton, on pole position for the GP2 support race in Monaco, has been backed by McLaren for the last decade since he approached Dennis in a borrowed tuxedo at an awards ceremony in London.

"He was so confident. I was just in total admiration. I was just pathetic at that age and he had absolute perfect eye contact," Dennis recalled. "I thought this youngster could possibly go somewhere."

Hamilton has won every series he has entered so far and is poised to take the outright lead in GP2 at Monaco.

The same series catapulted last year's champion Nico Rosberg, son of 1982 world champion Keke, into Formula One with Williams this year.

"We've mapped out his year, he's going to concentrate on GP2 and we're not going to get distracted from that," Dennis said of Hamilton's future.

"As and when I feel it is appropriate, we'll give him the opportunity to test and really settle in to driving a Formula One car. Then, according to how that works out, we'll decide together the next best step."

McLaren have signed world champion Fernando Alonso from Renault for next year but are expected to lose Finland's Kimi Raikkonen to Ferrari with Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya's position also in doubt.

"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."