Hamilton silent over McLaren future
Lewis Hamilton took the sting out of what could have become another feeding frenzy over his future by declining to answer any questions as to where he might be next season.
As Press Association Sport has learned this week, Hamilton has two final contract offers on the table from McLaren and Mercedes, with the ball in his court as to where he decides to go.
But as he took his seat ahead of one of his press sessions at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Hamilton said: "Before we start, I'm not here to speak about anything but the weekend (Singapore Grand Prix). I've no extra news for you, so use your time wisely to speak about other things if you can."
Hamilton even refused to skirt around the issue when it was put to him team-mate Jenson Button has used speculation over his future in the past as a positive.
"I've not even thought about it," said Hamilton, winner of two of the last three races in Hungary and Monza to push him to within 37 points of championship leader Fernando Alonso.
"I'm just focusing on this weekend. The most important thing is not to get excited about the pace we had in the last race because it is going to be different this weekend.
"Other people, like Fernando, have said they're going to be bringing an update this weekend, so I hope we have something to combat that. So I've other things to focus on."
So it was left to Button to put things into perspective for Hamilton, urging him to embrace his situation, no matter how tough the decision. He experienced something similar in 2009 as to whether he would remain with Brawn, which eventually morphed into Mercedes, or move on elsewhere, and again last season with his initial two-year McLaren deal expiring.
"I quite like it. It's quite exciting being in that situation," said Button. "I've never found it a bad thing when people have asked me where I'm racing, and when you've more than one interested party it's always nice for a driver.
"The only difficult time for me was with Williams and BAR (as there was a contract dispute), but that was for different reasons. But when people have talked about whether I'm going to be at one team or another I've never had a real issue with it before."
