Lewis Hamilton sported Nelson Mandela's old prison number - 46664 - on a silver bangle around his right wrist, an appropriate adornment while discussing a prominent racial campaigner.

The man in question, however, was not the 90-year-old South African who was incarcerated on Robben Island but Max Mosley, the derided Formula One ruler with a pro-apartheid past.

As he prepared for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton was confronted by comments Mosley, 68, made to a student magazine, Parson's Pleasure, as an undergraduate at Oxford half a century before.

Dodging the issue: Lewis Hamilton has stayed clear of questions regarding Max Mosley.

In its pages, edited by Richard Ingrams and Paul Foot of Private Eye fame, he was asked whether he stood by the controversial views of his father, the reviled Blackshirts leader Sir Oswald Mosley.

'All that I have come across, YES,' he replied.

More relevantly for Hamilton, whose paternal grandparents left Grenada for a better life in London 53 years ago, was Moseley's views of Caribbean influx.

'I feel that the West Indian immigrants now in this country should return home,' he said at the time.

And even more pertinent to Hamilton, the progeny of a black father and white mother, was this nugget from a young Mosley: '(I am) opposed to mixed marriages on a large scale - I would never prohibit it until more facts are known as to its results.'

The first mixed race driver in Formula One history was naturally reluctant to be drawn into a slanging match with the man whose decisions could yet impact on his chances of capturing a first world title.

He simply said: 'Obviously it doesn't make me happy.'

Mosley was asked, via his spokesman, whether he stood by the far-Right views espoused by his late father in the Sixties.

His response, which neglected to address the question as put, read: 'Everyone who knows me, knows I abhor prejudice of any kind. I am an old fashioned liberal. I have no earthly recollection of this interview taking place or of making any such comments, which would have dated from 50 years ago.'

FIA President Max Mosley

This is the same Mosley who was fined £2 for obstructing a policeman in Trafalgar Square while taking part in a counterdemonstration against an anti-apartheid protest in 1961. He was said to be travelling in a lorry carrying six coshes, three pickaxes and a mallet.

It is the same Mosley who, in 1962, appeared in court after 'The Battle of Ridley Road'. His father had decided to hold a meeting at the East London market for the provocative reason that it was a gathering point for Jews. Predictably, fighting started. Mosley was cleared of wrongdoing.

Clearly, then, he is the right man to lead the FIA's antiracism campaign, which was launched after Hamilton was abused in pre-season testing in Spain.

Practice starts at the Hungaroring today and Hamilton, who leads the championship by four points over Ferarri's Felipe Massa, is in contented mood after two successive victories.

Another reason for his composure is the change of his McLaren team-mate since the stormy visit here a year ago, when he clashed with Fernando Alonso during and following qualifying. His replacement Heikki Kovalainen, whose one-year contract extension was announced on Thursday, is more to Hamilton's taste.

Hamilton said: 'We are having a much smoother year. There is a nice environment here. We are here to race and are focusing on that. We have no distractions, so it is a much better position to be in. We don't have any excess baggage on our team.'

Hamilton is seven points clear of world champion Kimi Raikkonen but knows he cannot be complacent. He said: 'I've thought I've had the opportunity of the title since day one. I had a couple of bad races but there has always been a long way to go so I've never believed I can't win.'