Zoom At home with McLaren

World Champion Lewis Hamilton on Wednesday seemed to counter speculation his future may lay outside of the McLaren team.

Former Ferrari racer and Briton Eddie Irvine this week recommended a future move for the 23-year-old to the famous Italian marque, as the British press predicted he now wields immense financial power along F1's pitlane.

But as Hamilton returned from Brazil on Wednesday to personally thank McLaren's staff in Woking, he promised the nearly 1000-strong ranks that he has no plans to swerve his long-term contractual arrangement with Ron Dennis' team.

2008 is the first year of a five-year agreement with McLaren which will bring him to the end of the 2012 season.

"I love this team and I'm going nowhere," he told the gathered team members, to a rapturous reception.

Hamilton had pulled up outside the ultra high-tech McLaren Technology Centre after guiding his MP4-23 around the nearby lake.

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM