Lewis Hamilton says that he will look to resolve his future "after the first couple of races" to prevent speculation lingering throughout the season.

13212 - Hamilton to resolve future early

Hamilton is out of contract at McLaren at the end of the 2012 season, and was linked with a switch to Red Bull after meeting Christian Horner during last year's Canadian Grand Prix weekend. After launching the new McLaren MP4-27 on Wednesday Hamilton admitted that he wasn't going to let contract negotiations become a distraction during testing but that he would like to get his future sorted at the earliest possible opportunity.

"At the moment the focus is on the preparation we have coming up for the season," Hamilton told the Press Association. "Probably after the first couple of races it's something we will probably want to get out of the way.

"We can then focus on the rest of the year without the team being concerned and without it being something hanging around, so then you guys (the media) won't have to ask questions about it. So I'll try to get that out of the way at some stage, probably in the earlier part of the year rather than later."

The top four teams in 2011 all have drivers with expiring deals as, Red Bull's Mark Webber, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher at Mercedes are all also out of contract at the end of this season.