McLaren: Hamilton's confidence not dented

That is the view of McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh, who thinks that Hamilton will have no problems bouncing back from his first retirement of the season.

The Briton had looked on course to clinch the championship in Shanghai on Sunday, but he ran off the track on the entry to the pits and got stranded in a gravel trap. His exit allowed Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso to close the gap in the drivers' standings.

Whitmarsh believes that Hamilton's strength of character will help him pull through the disappointment of China, as he chases the opportunity to become F1's first rookie world champion.

"Lewis is disappointed not to have won the race, he's disappointed not to have clinched the championship," said Whitmarsh. "He spoke to every member of the team afterwards and stayed on the pit wall for a while, which shows his strength of character.

"He did a fantastic job and will be disappointed, but that won't affect his determination to do the job in Brazil. Even if he'd won the race and the title (in China), he'd want to go out and win the race in Brazil anyway - that's his nature."

In contrast to the difficulties the team are facing with Fernando Alonso, Whitmarsh said the strength of McLaren's relationship with Hamilton was shown by the way both the team and driver wanted to blame themselves for what happened.

"He is very professional and will blame himself to a degree, I'm sure," he explained. "And we as a team will blame ourselves. That's a great aspect of the partnership.

"We could all have done things differently. The fact is, with one race to go he's leading the world championship in his rookie year. This is his first DNF, so it has been a pretty astounding run.

"Okay, it wasn't a great time to have your first DNF but I'm sure he's confident he can go to Interlagos and win the championship."

Although the unpredictable nature of this season means that nothing is guaranteed for the finale in Interlagos, Whitmarsh is confident that his team will triumph.

"It'll be fantastic," he said of the Brazil weekend. "We'd prefer a dry race but it can be pretty wet in Brazil, too, and unpredictable.

"The last two races have been pretty incredible to watch and I'm sure Brazil will be the same. It'll be a cliff-hanger, but my money's on McLaren."