Lewis Hamilton has no regrets about his move to Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton has dismissed his
McLaren team boss's claim that he
has had some regrets about deciding
to move to Mercedes next season.
Hamilton said he was "a little bit
surprised to hear" the comments from
Martin Whitmarsh last week.
"Clearly it is absolutely not the case," he
said. "I am still here giving 100% in the
last two races but I am 100% happy
with the decision I made."
He said it was a "tough decision" but he
did not have "an ounce of regret".
Mercedes won the Chinese Grand Prix
in April, the third race of the season,
and in the first half of this year
appeared to have made a step forward
from their disappointing form in 2010
and 2011.
But they have slipped from
competitiveness as the season has
gone on.
Hamilton, who has been with McLaren
since he was 13, said: "What I do have
is a huge amount of love for the
(McLaren) team. Leaving is always a
tough decision and these last couple of
races will be tough.
"I'm happy I've got a new challenge
ahead of me. I've got to build new
relationships with people. Everyone
does that in life so I don't know why I
can't do it."
McLaren have had the quickest car for
large parts of this season but
Hamilton's title challenge has faded
because of a series of operational and
reliability failures by his team.
He lost all mathematical hope of being
champion when he retired from the
lead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix two
weeks ago - the second time in five
races a mechanical failure had cost him
victory.
He is now a bystander as Red Bull's
Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's Fernando
Alonso battle for the title in the final two
races of the season.
Asked how hard it was to watch his two
biggest rivals contest the championship
without him involved, Hamilton said: "I
think it goes without saying that these
two are two of the best here.
"What they have achieved is absolutely
incredible. The drivers are trying our
hardest to aspire to do the same, but
they are both incredibly professional
and it's amazing to see how focused
they are considering how much they
have done.
"For me, it is what it is. I am happy to
be here - we can still fight with them
even though we are not fighting for the
championship."
Hamilton said he hoped Alonso, who is
10 points behind Vettel heading into
this weekend's US Grand Prix in Austin,
Texas, could keep the championship
alive until the final race of the season in
Brazil next weekend.
"To keep the championship title alive
right until the last race is probably the
most exciting," Hamilton said. "When I
watched in the past, if the
championship was done before, there
was not much point watching last few
races.
"Hopefully it will go to the last race and
people will enjoy it."
He said he expected the Austin track to
prove a good challenge for the drivers
and to produce a good race.
"It is quite an interesting track," he said.
"It's difficult to learn initially and looks
fantastic to drive. It was enjoyable once
you got used to it (in the simulator). It
took more time than the others to learn
so will be interesting."