Speculation rife as Hamilton meets Red Bull

MONTREAL: McLaren team chief Martin Whitmarsh appeared to have a fight on his hands here on Monday as news leaked out that dissatisfied controversial 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton has held talks about his future with Red Bull.

Hamilton, it was reported, spent some time at the Red Bull team’s offices in the paddock at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve here on Saturday evening — 24 hours before he made his crashing exit from Sunday’s spectacular rain-hit Canadian Grand Prix.

According to sources at Red Bull, the 26-year-old Briton spent more than 15 minutes in a private meeting with Red Bull team chief Christian Horner.

Asked what they talked about, the source said it was just “a social visit.”

Hamilton is under contract to McLaren to the end of 2012 and has often declared that he wants to complete his racing career with the Woking-based outfit.

But it has been long-rumoured by paddock insiders that Hamilton would be prepared to leave McLaren and be a teammate to his greatest rival, defending world champion Sebastian Vettel, in exchange for a chance to win the title again in a truly competitive car.

He believes McLaren have struggled not only to build a competitive machine, but also to deliver the upgrades or on-track management performance required to compete at the very top level despite the team delivering the only two non-Vettel wins this year in seven races.

Compatriot and 2009 champion Jenson Button’s astonishing and dramatic triumph in Sunday’s rain-hit race will have buoyed the team, but is not regarded as likely to have done more than paper over the cracks in Hamilton’s view, according to paddock insiders.

Hamilton signed a new management team for his career this year and is now in the same stable as former England soccer captain David Beckham with Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment.

This management agency played a leading role in Beckham’s switch from Real Madrid to Los Angeles and may this time help Hamilton move his loyalty from Woking to Milton Keynes.

Vettel’s Red Bull teammate, Australian Mark Webber, has a rolling one-year contract and could be seen by McLaren as a good replacement for Hamilton alongside Button.

Hamilton’s current boss Whitmarsh said he felt sympathy for Hamilton in his current difficulties following crashes at both Monaco and Montreal, amid the speculation over his ‘aggressive and dangerous” driving style.