Been following the Hamilton - McLaren - Mercedes saga, interesting stuff. A man who has undoubted natural talent, but who has been developed and nurtured through a career from a very early age by a single team. By all objective measures he has already earned more than he can possibly need. He decides to leave this team, which is a pure racing team like Ferrari, Williams, Red Bull and has a 40 year history of success, including winning 3 of the last 4 Grand Prix, to join Mercedes, a works team with no real history of stand alone success, like most works teams (Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Renault a short lived exception), and similarly no guarantee of remaining in the sport as a team in the long term. Not going to advance an opinion/ judgement on this, just find it interesting. Undoubtedly he will earn yet more money and is by all accounts quite keen on the stuff (given his background quite understandable), but he is also driven by winning and on the face of it he has less chance of doing this at Mercedes than at McLaren. Nearest parallel I can think of is Messi, should he ever choose to leave Barca. All I know is that it's made me realize that I'm a bigger supporter of McLaren than I am of Hamilton, but I don't really look at F1 in terms of partisan support. The F1 board on this site is very good by the way - I like the sport but am by no stretch an expert (not even sure how an engine works), but there are some blokes posting on there who really know their stuff.
He gone for the money and for being the undisputed #1 driver but I think its a bad career move for him. Theres only 2 cars he could have gone to and be competitive, Ferrari (which Alonso would never allow because he has to have a lapdog as a fellow driver) and RB which would never happen because he would probably beat fingerboy.
Big Lewis fan, but I'm shocked by this decision, & saddened if truth be told. But, he can't be just motivated by money (although I'm dam sure his advisers are!), he has passion, he's a winner, he needs to win. I hope it works out for him, but I doubt it will.
To be fair on that, he's not really abandoning that single team. Mercedes were major shareholders in McLaren, and significant supporters of the drivers in the development programme when they competed in junior formulae so they've supported him just as much as McLaren. It's more a case of the team having split in two, and with no Ron Dennis in the McLaren F1 team anymore (since he moved upstairs) there's not much continuity either way. It'd be interesting to know how much involvement Norbert Haug (Mercedes Motorsport boss across most big classifications) has in the development of drivers as well. It's purely a greed/tantrum based decision though, nobody in their right mind leaves a team like McLaren to join a team in Merc's position because of what they say will be the situation in 18 months time.
Tbh SB Mercedes have a great racing pedigree mate. Check out Moss & Jenks Mille Miglia success - epic race Do agree though that he's gone for the money. If he wanted eternal fame at a team with a better future he should have gone to Ferrari or red bull who have the back room staff Me I would have gone Ferrari all the way but I guess the midget spaniard being there already vetoed a move? Bloody hell being a Ferrari works driver? Dream job.
Of course they have a great racing history WBA, just a bit of an inconsistent presence in F1, but Ric makes a good point about their partnership with McLaren more recently. Totally agree about Ferrari, got to be every F1 drivers ambition. And although its not popular to admit it, at least in this country, I have a huge amount of respect for Alonso, especially this season when he is obviously not in the best car.
The Mercedes of the past have got nothing to do with this team just as the lotus of the past is not the current lotus team. Mercedes is Honda (or was it Toyota) and Brawn. The just bought a current team and slapped a badge on it.
I'm not necessarily a good judge of character - I quite like Swords, for example - but Hamilton has always struck me as a rather unpleasant individual, so I'm completely indifferent to what he chooses to do in his life. If I could be arsed to cheer on a Brit in this sport, then I'd plump for Button over Hamilton every time. As far as the money argument goes, however, most of us would probably do the same. There's as much room for sentiment in sport as there is in life in general these days.
Interesting as you say sb, it's noticeable that since he was thrust into the spotlight with great early success his head has been turned. Popstar girlfriend, under new management after giving Dad the boot, and his career has generally stagnated. His maturity is questionable and this could turn out to be a really poor decision. Mercedes are not on a par with McLaren and he'll have a tough job closing the gap, it's a shame because he's undoubtedly the best natural talent produced in the past decade and his own impetuosity could cost him what should be the best years of his career...
