McLaren believes Lewis Hamilton's victory in the Italian Grand Prix will make him want to stay at the team next year, ahead of a fresh push this week to nail down a new contract.
Hamilton has been at the center of intense speculation for the past few days about his future after former team boss Eddie Jordan claimed the 2008 World Champion had agreed a deal to move to Mercedes.
Neither McLaren nor Mercedes have said anything is sorted for 2013, however, and negotiations between Hamilton's current team and his management company XIX Entertainment are expected to take place in the next few days.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said that there was no pressure on his team to get the matter finalized before the next race in Singapore but he remained confident about the eventual outcome.
"I don't think it is that important," he said when asked if it would be better to have a deal signed before the next race. "Predicting the timing of when two get to dance is always dangerous.
"We have proven this weekend that there were reasonable attempts to distract and they have failed, so I don't think there is any distraction, and we have got to carry on trying to win races."
Whitmarsh thinks that Hamilton will ultimately realize that his ambitions to win are best served at McLaren, even though other teams may be able to offer him greater commercial freedom.
"My feeling is that this is a great team for Lewis to stay in," he said. "He has got to want to stay here, and we will figure that one out when we've had some celebrations.
"I think we are working together well. We are a winning team, he is a winning driver and we are a great team together."
Whitmarsh also said that the outfit was not seriously considering options elsewhere in case Hamilton leaves, following talk that highly rated Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas has emerged as a leading candidate.
"Not really," said Whitmarsh. "I think we are a winning team, Lewis is a winning driver and there is a lot of sense in us working together. We have a finite amount of time and I haven't, I hope, wasted any of that on matters other than on working together, having a quick car, winning races and winning championships."
McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis believes that his team's position has been strengthened by it taking a third consecutive victory last weekend. Speaking to Britain's Sky, TV, he said: "It would be totally inappropriate for me to say anything that would undermine Martin's position. It's his job to get to where we want to get to and I'm sure he'll have a better position now having demonstrated yet again that we've got a very strong car. If Lewis is absolutely committed to winning, then he can win in a McLaren."