Lewis Hamilton’s future at McLaren Mercedes, in the wake of the cheating scandal at the Australian Grand Prix, depends on the interaction between five key personalities.
The allegations that Hamilton, under the instruction of Dave Ryan, the McLaren sporting director who has since been sacked, tried to cheat Jarno Trulli, out of third place in Melbourne have unleashed powerful emotional forces that threaten to destroy a relationship that Hamilton had often said he hoped would last all his career in Formula One.
At McLaren, the leading players in trying to retrieve the situation are Martin Whitmarsh, Ron Dennis, and Hamilton himself. Outside the team is Anthony Hamilton, who manages his son, and hovering in the background is Max Mosley, who is playing a potentially explosive hand.
Dennis remains the most powerful figure at a team he has forged in his own likeness to settle old scores, his career has veered from moments of glory to some of McLaren’s most miserable lows.
Mosley has a role to play because, on the one hand, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council will determine what further punishment McLaren might receive, which could, in turn, affect Lewis Hamilton’s decision whether to stay or leave.
| 
|