Other than its role in helping fuel the situation at McLaren, the media, particularly in Britain, has recently turned its attention to Lewis Hamilton's private life.

A number of newspapers in Britain have run stories in recent weeks speculating over Hamilton's relationship with his long-time girlfriend, Jodia Ma.

The initial round of stories concerned a "mystery brunette" whom Lewis was seen "frolicking" with in St Tropez. The "mystery brunette" turned out to be Sara Ojjeh, daughter of Mansour Ojjeh, who owns 15 percent of McLaren.

As Pitpass said at the time, with Hamilton having been on McLaren's books for some time, it is highly likely that the two youngsters have known one another for some time, having virtually grown up together. However, this wasn't enough for the British media.

Earlier this week, the McLaren driver was pictured leaving a cinema with a couple of friends, however it was the "Oriental beauty" that got the attention of the tabloids, who now suggested that Hamilton had found yet another girlfriend.

Of course, much of the British media wouldn't know one end of an F1 car from another, and sees Hamilton's true role not as a potential Formula One World Champion but as a "celebrity".

However, apart from the fact that this is not Hamilton's way, the youngster knows the damage such 'reporting' can do, and is keen to stop the rot before it goes too far.

Speaking in Istanbul, Hamilton was clearly indignant at the recent coverage.

"I'm not a playboy," he told reporters. "I haven't gone out and bought lots of expensive cars, I'm not dating all these women. If I was, then fair play, write stuff about me. But I'm just trying to lead a normal life."

"All those stories are completely wrong," he continued. "I was supposed to go away with my friends, with the lads and have a lads' holiday, but I thought it was a bad idea at the mid part of the season where I'm leading the championship. I thought it was better just to relax, do some training and I was invited on to the boat and they took care of me.

"There were 13 of us on the boat," he continued, "and there were three of the Ojjeh daughters and they all had their boyfriends there. "When I first got there, I wasn't expecting to have pictures taken of us and what you don't see in that picture is that there were 12 of us in the back of the boat throwing each other in.

"At the end of the day, it probably wouldn't be so bad if I was getting together with all these women but I'm not," he said. "I just found out the other day that I've slept with Dido. I don't remember it."

Referring to this week's trip to the cinema and the "Oriental beauty", Hamilton said: "I went to the cinema the other day with my best friend and his fiancee and my friend Mohammed. The papers said one of them is my bodyguard and I'm seeing this girl. So now I'm cheating on someone else.

"My ex-girlfriend and I, we made a mutual decision," he continued. "At the start of the season I said, 'I'm going to be away for two months and it's going to be hard for you.' She was only in the UK for me at that point, and she had a lot of problems with her family, so I said, 'Look, perhaps you should go back home, see your family, and when I come back from my first three races we'll see where we go from there.' She wants to be getting on with her career, not following me around. And it's the same for me. So we're still great friends but the papers keep bringing it up and it's devastating for both of us."

The sad thing is, that no matter what he says, the stories will continue. Furthermore, now that he has admitted to being rattled by the media it will probably get a whole lot worse. F1 doesn't sell newspapers or magazines, sex and scandal does, and the British media knows that all too well.

Fact is, by criticising the British media, Lewis has set in motion the media backlash that was always inevitable. All that remains to be seen is when Fleet Street finally decides to bite off the hand that is feeding it.