British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton insisted Saturday that a move from McLaren to Red Bull "can work" and said he would be happy to operate alongside reigning world champion Sebastien Vettel.
The 2008 champion was recently strongly linked to the move in the wake of his new management deal with the XIX Entertainment agency run by celebrity svengali Simon Fuller, who includes soccer star David Beckham among his clients.
Hamilton, who spent a year deciding on a new manager after dropping his father Anthony, said a deal with constructors' champions Red Bull, to succeed Australian Mark Webber, 34, would work "in theory."
"It can work," he said. "You saw me and (former McLaren teammate) Fernando (Alonso): we were very competitive. You see me and (current teammate) Jenson (Button), so world champions can definitely race together as long as there is equality in the team."
"There is definitely not that at a couple of the teams around us," he added. "At my team you will probably see the most equality out of all the teams."
The likelihood of such a pairing was played down by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, but Hamilton said he only did this to defend his current drivers.
"The only reason I would imagine that (Horner) would suggest that is because certain individuals don't like being beaten. Some individuals can take it. Some people are better losers or better winners. So it is just dependant," he said.
Hamilton added, "In this team, when Jenson beats me, I take it on the chin and think, 'Next time I am going to beat him.' When I beat him, he doesn't whinge and say, 'Oh, Lewis has a better car than me or Lewis did this and I did that.'
"There is none of that here, it is very equal," he added. "In some places you can imagine it could be different. I never have any complaints. If a guy beats me it is because he has done a better job."
Hamilton topped the times for McLaren in Saturday's third and final practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, producing a fastest lap of 1.36.340 to outpace his nearest rival Webber by two-tenths of a second.
