McLaren aim to keep pressure off Hamilton

With McLaren boss Ron Dennis admitting on Sunday that it was 'not impossible' that Hamilton could race for his team in 2007, there are fears that the talk about his future could affect the ART driver's GP2 title chances.

But McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh has moved to quell the talk linking Hamilton with a seat alongside Fernando Alonso next year.

He insists that their number one target remains Kimi Raikkonen and that Hamilton, who has a long-term management contract with McLaren, must focus on capturing the GP2 crown.

"There is obviously a huge amount of pressure on any driver who puts on a set of McLaren overalls," said Whitmarsh in the Guardian.

"We've made no secret of the fact that we would prefer Kimi Raikkonen to remain in the team with Alonso in 2007, and to that end we've given him the maximum amount of time to decide what he wants to do.

"Together with Lewis, we've obviously got a good stable of drivers signed up, including Juan Pablo Montoya and our test drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett.

"We really want to keep as much pressure and sense of anticipation off Lewis's shoulders while he concentrates on his first priority, which is winning the GP2 title."

Despite being cautious about Hamilton's future prospects, Whitmarsh said that the British driver's performance at the Nurburgring was 'astounding' as he moved to within one point of championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr.

"Lewis's performance in the Saturday race was the most phenomenal performance I have ever seen in a GP2 race," he said.

"If he continues like that, he could decimate the entire field through the remainder of the year, and this is doubly impressive when you consider that most of his strongest rivals are in their second year racing in the category. It was really outstanding stuff."