Indian GP: Lewis Hamilton to continue testing new McLaren parts

Hamilton's insistence after Indian Grand Prix practice that he was not running any upgrade parts on his car led to suggestions that he was being kept in the dark about McLaren's 2013 tweaks due to his move to Mercedes next year.

But McLaren's sporting director Sam Michael said there was no need to conceal new parts from drivers because they would never get enough technical detail for their knowledge to be useful to future employers.

When asked by AUTOSPORT whether McLaren felt any need to be "careful" with Hamilton's role in 2013 component testing, Michael said that Hamilton and Jenson Button were still on a standard rotation system.

"In actual fact, being open, it was Lewis who did all the testing this morning as we alternate between drivers," Michael said.

"If you went and tested a new front wing, he would know it is a new front wing but there is no way he would know it is a change in the radius here or the endplate there. They are not going to know that type of detail."

He said it was routine for drivers to be relatively unaware of the fine detail of their technical evaluation programmes.

"He would not know the detail of what it is and neither would Jenson, because the detail of it is not something that is the domain of the driver," Michael added. "It is an engineering task."

Michael said driver feedback was not always required in upgrade evaluation.

"The only time a driver gets directly involved is if we are into mapping for example, or something that affects the driveabilty of the car," he said.

"Most other things, even if he identifies if something is better or worse, he is not going to get into the detail of what the physical parts are, so [Hamilton leaving] doesn't affect anything."