Hamilton, who is seven points ahead of his nearest rival, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, only needs to finish in the top five to take the title and become the sport's youngest champion.
With prize money in F1 awarded for where each team finish in the constructors' race, a one-two for the British team could see them overhaul their Italian rivals.
But that could lead to Hamilton taking unnecessary risks and McLaren chief Ron Dennis has insisted that the prestige of winning the drivers' title is far more important than the financial reward for being top constructor.
His team are 11 points behind Ferrari.
'The primary goal in grand prix racing is the drivers' championship, the secondary is the constructors', and we run the team according to those objectives,' said Dennis. 'We don't balance the two.'
Dennis also suggested criticism of Hamilton's driving style by other drivers and team principals before the last race in Shanghai was an attempt to 'destabilise' the 23-year-old.
Massa has claimed all the pressure is now on the McLaren star, who finished seventh at Interlagos last season to lose the title by a single point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
'For sure, Lewis will try and put pressure on me, but I have zero pressure, because I have nothing to lose,' Massa said.
'All the pressure will be on Lewis, especially when you think about what happened at this race last year.'
Even former McLaren team boss Eddie Jordan advised Hamilton to get ruthless in the event of a repeat of his collision with Massa in the Japan race.
'If Massa tries to take him out, as he did in Fuji in order to steal the title, then Lewis has to turn his wheel into him to ensure he does not finish the race either,' Jordan told Autosport.
But Dennis insisted Hamilton will 'rise above the comments', and the manner in which he ignored the snipings to lead from start to finish at Shanghai was evidence that his driver had learnt from the experience of last season.
'Lewis has matured. Anyone or anything that's subject to forces normally tempers or hardens the individual or material concerned. Through that hardening, you become wiser,' Dennis said.
One of the issues facing Hamilton is that his McLaren will be running its engine for the second race, whereas the Ferrari pair of Massa and Raikkonen will have new engines for Brazil.
That will see Hamilton give away one-tenth of a second per lap. And while he has never yet suffered an engine failure during a race, just such a fate befell teammate Heikki Kovalainen in the Japan GP and McLaren are taking no chances.
The team's chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said: 'We'll be looking at the possibility of running Lewis' engine in a safer setting so it has a bit more margin than normal.'