Lewis Hamilton will not be held back in his bid for the Formula One title, according to the boss of McLaren's engine supplier, Mercedes.

The 22-year-old Briton has been the sensation of the season so far, setting a new record for a rookie in claiming podium finishes in his first three races.

Now Norbert Haug has moved to dismiss fears that the team will favour Hamilton's double world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso when the title race hots up.

"We have never had a No.1 and a No.2 and this is not going to change," Haug said.

Rumours have circulated that Alonso has been ruffled by Hamilton's pace and consistency, after the Spaniard finished fifth in Bahrain, three places behind Hamilton. Yet Haug dismissed any discord within the McLaren camp as the team prepare for Alonso's home race in Barcelona on May 13.

"Fernando congratulated Lewis himself after the race," he said. "We are a team, and, after all, there was no disaster - he was only five seconds away from third place.

"Fernando knows that racing goes like this sometimes. You could even see that in television interviews afterwards he smiled and looked perfectly happy.

Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen's former mentor has hinted that the Finn could be even faster if he concentrated more on the technical side of the sport. Peter Sauber, who gave the 27-year-old his break in 2001, believes Ferrari have a top driver on their hands, but one who needs to be pushed in a key area.

Since leaving Sauber, rumours in the paddock suggest that Raikkonen is not especially interested in working with his engineers to make his car go quicker.

Instead, he relies on his natural talent, which Sauber believes is not enough in a high-tech sport where the difference between winning and losing can be thousandths of a second.

Sauber said: "You could say it would be interesting to see how good he could be if he concerned himself with the technology side as well."