Dennis hands Hamilton incentive

Ron Dennis has urged rising star Lewis Hamilton to prove he deserves McLaren’s continued support, revealing the team could soon have a test driver vacancy.

Englishman Hamilton has trounced the opposition on his way to the Formula Three Euroseries title, capping a stunning rise through the junior ranks which has been backed up by cash from McLaren and Mercedes.

Dennis is looking to continue his support of the Hertfordshire-based 20-year-old, with a move to GP2 next season on the cards.

He said: “We are minded to be supportive of continuing his career as long as he accepts the recommendations we will ultimately make to him.

“There is GP2 and there may be some opportunities in Formula One but we don’t see that at the moment.

“The clear message to Lewis is win all the remaining races. We expect him to win some of the remaining races.”

McLaren could soon be looking for a new test driver after Dennis revealed he would not prevent Alex Wurz joining BMW.

The Austrian is believed to be high on BMW’s wanted list if they can find a way to oust Jacques Villeneuve from his Sauber contract for 2006.

Wurz spent three seasons racing at Benetton before joining McLaren as a tester, even turning down the chance of a race seat at Jaguar to continue his work at Woking.

But the lure of BMW might be too much for the 31-year-old, who finished third in a one-off race as a replacement for the injured Juan Pablo Montoya at Imola this year.

Dennis will not stop Wurz furthering his career, but warned BMW may be attracted more by his knowledge of McLaren than his racing abilities.

He said: “Clearly, it is absolute policy that we will not stand in the way of a driver’s career and if the opportunity for those guys to race comes up then we will encourage them into those opportunities.

“There is an obvious attraction for our two test drivers because they have a tremendous amount of valuable knowledge of the car and the systems.

“To a certain degree I do feel they are a little bit vulnerable to being pulled into another team, sucked dry of the information and then discarded. I and they will be mindful of that if those opportunities present themselves.”