Lewis Hamilton and Pedro de la Rosa will have to wait until mid-December to find out who has secured a 2007 McLaren race-seat alongside Fernando Alonso.

Both Hamilton and de la Rosa will take part in McLaren's winter test programme, which is set to start in Barcelona on November 28.

The two drivers will go head-to-head with one another as the team bids to discover which of the two would be better suited to partner Alonso in the 2007 World Championship.

However, the two drivers won't know until just before Christmas who has secured McLaren's second race-seat.

"We'll announce our decision sometime before Christmas," McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh told Speed TV.

"Clearly Lewis is a strong contender, and so is Pedro. We're not looking anywhere else."

And even if they did, Whitmarsh doubts they would find another driver who falls into the same category as outgoing McLaren Kimi Raikkonen and incoming driver Alonso, as they are, according to him, the two best drivers in F1.

"In F1 post-Michael (Schumacher), the top echelon is definitely Kimi and Fernando, after that I think there's a reasonable step down."

Whitmarsh was also asked for his thoughts specifically on pitting Hamilton, who would be a rookie, against Alonso, a two-time world champion.

"It's a classic we are damned if we do, damned if we don't," he admitted.

"If we put him in there will be those that wish to criticise us, 'how can you put a young driver like that up against Fernando, it's a good way to ruin him', and if we don't it'll be 'how can you squander that talent for another year?'

"That's what we're in business to take. We've been 10 years on the project, he's a tremendously exciting driver, he happens to be a very nice human being and a very grounded individual."

He added: "He will in F1 very soon, one way or another."