Button did add, though, that he thought it would likely prove irrelevant
whether his team mate stayed at McLaren, and that “moving to another team
wouldn’t hurt me as much as much as I think it would hurt him”.
For his part, Hamilton
chose a timely moment to remind any prospective employers of the raw speed
which makes him such a prized asset, bouncing back from the disappointment
of Belgium last weekend, where he crashed out on the opening lap before
becoming embroiled in a Twitter controversy, to top the timesheets on a
gorgeous day at Monza.
The 27-year-old edged Button by just 0.038 seconds in a desperately tight
Friday afternoon session which saw the top eight drivers separated by less
than three tenths.
As much as McLaren would like to devote their energies to increasing that
advantage ahead of what will be a crucial qualifying session on Saturday, it
was Hamilton’s future which was once again took centre stage.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, in his first interview since BBC
pundit Eddie Jordan claimed on Wednesday that Hamilton had “already agreed
terms” with Mercedes, tried his best to play down the furore — even taking a
pot shot at Jordan’s reliability.
In a BBC interview with Jordan, Whitmarsh joked: “I think that any article
that includes a sentence that begins ‘Eddie Jordan understands…’ is
automatically questionable.” The remark may or may not make the final cut.
Whitmarsh was less bullish in other interviews, though, conceding that while
Hamilton’s management — Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment — had said “lots of
positive things” to him regarding their client’s desire to stay at McLaren,
he had “learned over the years that until people support that by inking the
paper you don’t get too excited”.
Hardly a resounding statement of confidence. Whitmarsh also made a rather
pointed remark about only wanting a driver who was “100 per cent committed”
to McLaren.
“The important thing is we don’t spend any time, energy, concentration on
stuff like that. We just concentrate on doing our job,” he concluded.
“We’ll see. It will get resolved when it does, but I don’t think it is as big
an issue in this team as it possibly is in the media room.”
You can bet that it is. While the title race will briefly reclaim centre stage
this weekend, with Hamilton and Button heading into qualifying 47 points and
63 points behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso respectively, the subject of
Hamilton’s future will not be far from anyone’s minds.