Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso

The first restriction on Lewis Hamilton’s freedom to be Lewis Hamilton is upon us. After the 22-year-old Briton’s superb second consecutive Grand Prix victory in Indianapolis on Sunday, the muzzle is being applied.

During a briefing the day before Hamilton drove to the chequered flag under constant pressure from Fernando Alonso, Ron Dennis, the McLaren Mercedes principal, revealed the details of an “agreement” reached with his drivers.

Henceforth, Hamilton and Alonso will never talk about each other unless they are both present in the same room. The reason? Apparently, the media cannot be trusted to report accurately what they say about each other.

Under the new rule, the drivers will have to be more circumspect about what they say when their teammate and rival is next to them — the implication being that they cannot be trusted either — and that this way they will also know exactly what the other has said.

According to Dennis, this restriction on free speech is necessary because everything Hamilton or Alonso say about each other is being “blown out of proportion” as this extraordinary season in Formula One develops.

The media are giving the impression — incorrectly, according to Dennis — that the relationship between Hamilton and Alonso is creaking under the stress caused by Hamilton’s challenge to what Alonso must have imagined would be his clear-cut status as McLaren’s No.1 driver this season.

McLaren want us to believe that these two are the best of friends. They “go to visit each other in their rooms” before races, they play basketball together on the PlayStation — they really are bosom buddies. We know that this is ridiculous.

The truth is that they are affable to each other, friendly in the way that is required of them and not enemies — not yet, anyway. As Hamilton often says, they are both “extremely professional”, working together within a team. But there is also a rivalry that is getting more intense with every race — and that is natural because both want to be world champion and only one can be.

Had Hamilton been less competitive on the track in comparison to Alonso, as the Spaniard must have expected when he joined McLaren at the end of last season, there would have been no rivalry.

Another factor that is helping to stoke the fire has been the recent fall-off in performance by Ferrari, which has allowed the McLaren drivers to pull clear at the head of the drivers’ rankings. As it stands, Hamilton and Alonso are aware that it is their own teammate — not Felipe Massa or Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari — who is likely to stop them fulfilling their dream.

My impression watching this intriguing season unfold is that Hamilton and Alonso are handling the situation well. Both men are ultra-competitive and both are aware that they have to fight on all fronts to win.

Within reason, a well-timed dig at your opponent or having the courage to stand up for your rights against those of your rival is part of the game, just as not giving way when going wheel-to-wheel at 200mph on the home straight in Indianapolis, is part of the game.

Both of them know what they are saying when they brief their respective national media and they are aware of how their comments are likely to be interpreted. For these reasons, they do not need to be treated like schoolboys who cannot be trusted to talk about each other unless both are present.

Besides, this is an impractical restriction that will be honoured only in the breach. If it does hold sway for a while, it will have only negative consequences. Its effect will be to put the lid on forces that, until now, have found their natural expression.

One or other of the two will eventually feel that their teammate has broken the deal and then it will be open season and the damage could be far worse than anything McLaren have had to deal with.