World champion Lewis Hamilton has given no indication that he wants to leave McLaren after the lying row at the Australian Grand Prix, team principal Martin Whitmarsh said on Sunday.

Whitmarsh's comments follow British newspaper reports that the 24-year-old considered quitting McLaren, and even Formula One.

The Briton, who made an emotional apology on the sidelines of the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday, was reportedly talked out of walking away by Max Mosley, head of the FIA, the sport's governing body.

Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said Hamilton contacted Mosley as the controversy blew up after being led by McLaren into falsely telling the stewards he had not been instructed to allow Jarno Trulli to pass him.

"I have read some stories this morning, but I have obviously spoken to Lewis on quite a few occasions and (his father) Anthony," said Whitmarsh.

"We are here trying to do a job and go racing and this has been quite a distracting influence, but in all of those conversations from Anthony and Lewis the commitment to this team has not altered.

"It's been extreme and there has been no hint of what has been reported, so at the moment I don't believe what has been reported."

Despite Whitmarsh denying Hamilton wanted to leave, former McLaren driver and fellow Briton Martin Brundle, in Malaysia as a pundit, said it had been considered.

"I cannot believe how McLaren have pinned themselves into this perilous corner," Brundle said in a column for the Sunday Times.

"They have now seriously undermined their image and potentially their sporting prospects over what was originally an innocuous incident in last week's Australian Grand Prix.

"Even worse, their relationship with their star driver has been damaged to such an extent that Lewis Hamilton has even considered resigning.

"They are intelligent people so I struggle to understand how they can behave so recklessly."

Hamilton has described the row as the worst time of his life, but squarely laid the blame on McLaren sporting director Dave Ryan, who has been suspended.

"I was instructed and misled by my team manager to withhold information and that's what I did," he said when making his apology.

Ryan represented McLaren along with Hamilton in the post-race stewards' hearing in Melbourne that dealt with Trulli's overtaking of the Briton under safety car conditions.

The incident earned the Italian a 25-second penalty, which saw him relegated, with Hamilton promoted onto the podium but at a hearing last Thursday the FIA ruled Hamilton and his team lied about the circumstances.

Trulli was reinstated and Hamilton disqualified.

Whitmarsh, meanwhile, refused to rule out stepping down, as the row showed few signs of abating with McLaren possibly facing further sanctions if the matter goes to the World Motor Sport Council.

He said his fate was in the hands of the company's shareholders.

"Well it wouldn't be true if I said I wasn't (contemplating my future), because at a time like this you think about what you got involved with this sport for and it wasn't for this sort of thing," he said.

"Of course it is not self-determining, it's for the shareholders of this team to take a view and that's something they have to decide."

AFP

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