Speculation regarding Hamilton’s future has been rife of late, with the 26-year-old linked repeatedly with rival team Red Bull. He added fuel to the fire after suggesting that “loyalty had its limits” a perceived acknowledgment that he would leave the team if McLaren could not deliver him a championship winning car.

Hamilton will remain focused on reeling in Sebastian Vettel after his victory at the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago, and will now look for back to back wins when the Turkish Grand Prix gets under way in just over a weeks time.

Those who watch formula 1 live will hope for a contest to match the race in Shanghai, which is being billed as one of the greatest races of modern times ah Hamilton searches to reduce Vettel’s championship lead even further.

Whitmarsh has now moved to quash the rumours that Hamilton could switch to the team he is enjoying a battle with this season, and insisted that Hamilton’s future was with the Woking-based outfit.

“Lewis has a long career ahead of him and I think he’s intelligent enough to realise that the environment he has here is good for him and plays to his strengths,” said the McLaren team boss told the Daily Mail.

“Lewis has made it clear to me he wants to stay in the team and I’ve made it clear to him I want him to stay.” He added.

Whitmarsh also went on to say that there was no rush to sign a new deal, stating that the trust felt between the two parties meant they could take their time.

“At some point, we need to get a contractual agreement that reflects that, of course.”

“But I don’t think – despite the media interest – that either of us thinks we have to get to a contract in three months or six months. I trust him and I think he trusts me.” He commented.

What really bugs me is that the ruling body never bothered to clarify the rules regarding what a driver is to do in this situation. It has been common practice to give up any position you gain by cutting a chicane and you avoid any penalty. I’ve seen Massa pass someone by cutting the chicane, give up the postion and no penalty to Ferrari so why when a McLaren does it do you get a 25 second penalty?

The real issue is what constitutes an advantage because the rules don’t explicitly state what that is. In any sport, if the players are not sure what the rules are then you are going to have chaos. If the rule is give up the place you gained ( as ferrari has done to avoid a penalty) then Lewis did the right thing and should not have been penalized. If the rule is give up the place and don’t pass until at least 1 more corner then so be it and state it in the rules.

I think it is clear that Lewis did what other drivers have done in the past to avoid a penalty but for some reason in this case it wasn’t enough.

I’ve never been one to jump on the Ferrari bias band wagon but it is clear to me that the rules are not being applied in the same way to all teams. If you are going to enforce a rule then you damn well better make sure you do it equally for ALL drivers and not just when it suits you.

I would have preferred if they had said the the appeal was not allowed, but also took the time to clarify what is the required action in this situation to avoid a penalty which they did not bother to do.

All I can say is if a Ferrari cuts a chicane and does the same thing Hamilton did I’d better see a drive through penalty for Ferrari or I will have lost all faith in F1 to follow it’s own rules.

I was watching the race, I saw Lewis shortcut the chicane in the rain slick conditions but I also saw him back off and give Kimi the place back again, thus gaining no advantage from his off track excursion and then the two excellent drivers continued to race.   The rules are clear that you cannot gain an advantage by such means and that if a driver does gain position he must immediately give up that gain.  In the race I was watching that is exactly what Lewis did and in a championship this close, especially after last years foolishness to take away that victory after some of the most fun to watch racing we’ve seen this year is just a stupid move on the part of the F1 officials.

The biggest complaint I hear about F1 is, it’s boring, there is no passing, nothing exciting happens.  Well, when it does and that results in some fantastic racing it’s a shame the officials have to taint the experience.

That’s just my opinion, I could be wrong and welcome your comments.

Tomorrow we will see how things shake out in the race and what the effect on the championship will be.

Will Lewis shine again this season without Fernando Alonso on his team? Only time will tell, but it looks like things are off to a great start for McLaren this year. I guess we’ll just have to see how the race goes tomorrow.

BMW is looking very strong too, perhaps it will be at least a 3 way challenge this year.

Ron says that Alonso later retracted this threat but from what I can see in the end it was the Alonso emails that cost the McLaren team all it’s points this year and also cost them $100 Million dollars.

It’s looking more and more to me like Fernando Alonso can’t quite deal with the fact that his team mate Lewis Hamilton may be new to F1 but has a level of skill so high that McLaren can’t legitimately put one driver before the other.

If Alonso can’t deal with both drivers being treated equally and has to resort to childish tantrums then perhaps he needs to go join a team like spyker where he can be clearly the number one driver.

This is a staggering number and really shows how Lewis Hamilton has pulled in the U.K. fans. While there seems to be no shortage of opinion on how good or evil Lewis Hamilton is, no one can deny that he has done wonders for the sport/business of F1 in England.

Now if only we could find another great Canadian driver …

Alonso is under contract until 2008 with McLaren but tensions in the McLaren team are clearly running very high at this point. When asked by the Spanish media if he would be staying with the team until the end of his contract Alonso’s reply was simply “I don’t know”.

When the question was put to McLaren team boss Ron Dennis he stated that this sort of speculation is inevitable but that McLaren will honour its contracts with the drivers and he hopes that the drivers would do the same.

The Renault team has said they would love to have the world champion Alonso back. I think Fernando would be unlikely to return to Renault with their current level of performance and I hope that both Lewis and Fernando can work through their differences and get on with making McLaren the best team it can be.