Hamilton to Mercedes

Yeah.... true. I'm amazed that between them they hadn't managed to square it much earlier in the season. I guess that was Hamilton hoping for a shot at Ferrari or RBR.

I'm still unsure how Hamilton will fair after this next season. It could either make him of break him. He's got to know that it's not exactly going to be a walk in the park though.

 

If Perez doesn't do well in his 2nd year you can be sure they will terminate his contract swiftly and Lewis will likely break his clause to get back in if Mercedes is ****.

 

It really wouldn't shock me if that happens by 2014... Unlikely but still wouldn't shock me.

 

Why are people saying he's gonna go back in 2014 when in that year the regulations change. He knows Mclaren can't win a championship even if they have the fastest car, there racing ethic needs to change . Mclaren might even be worse after 2014 who knows ?. To say he would come back in 2014 would be like leaving home then getting homesick(with mercedes) and then goes back to mummy and daddy(Mclaren) It makes no sense he needs this challenge to expand his driving experience and to spread his wings. No doubt its a tough road ahead, but it could be a pivotal point in his life where he discovers a new side to himself which could make him more complete. As a racing driver and a person.

 

I'm not saying he will, hence why I said that it's unlikely. I'm saying that it wouldn't shock me if it transpired.

Some of the comments over recent weeks make it look as though there is a level of regret from both sides, so if an opportunity arose next year to reunite, both sides MAY want to make it happen.

In all honesty, I have no clue how it will pan out or what their plans are... It's just how it may work out. I wasn't wrong when predicting Hamilton to Merc well over a year ago though. (lucky guess)

 

I think the speculation sits around there being a significant lack of team leaders (at present) on the grid and with the likely retirment of JB on 2015 - who could Mclaren have as a driver pairing - especially if Perez doesnt deliver?

 

I really don't see Lewis back at McLaren while Button is still there. But once he has gone, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

 

I think Hamilton left out of frustration. With a car as reliable as the Ferrari, and the speed of Mclaren, he would have been out of sight for this year's title. I think he left for Mercedes as they're the only ones who needed a driver and can match his wages.

I'll bet there are clauses in the mercedes contract that allow him to leave for less compensation if the team's doing completely **** (barely finishing in the points, etc)

However, I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, and I can see this happening:

"Hamilton to Red Bull when Vettel goes to Ferrari"

The above seems very plausible to me.

 

Nah Lewis wont be leaving in 2014, its a reset button for everyone and he would've developed that car. Thats when s*** gets serious.

 

If Schumacher couldn't develop that car, then Hamilton has a real job on his hands next season. 2014 is no guarantee of success either, Mercedes would still find a way to bugger up a level playing field.

 

Yeah i agree, Lewis seems prepared if not actively expecting to struggle next season. So he'll stay at Merc unless its a complete horror show. If it doesn't work out after that i could see a return from 2015 though.

Depends if he's come to the conclusion that he will need number 1 driver status to fight Alonso and Vettel. My personal impression is that all the talk of a big rift between Jenson and Lewis was very exaggerated.

 

Totally... I would have though Hamilton would have been trying for a 1 year extension at McLaren once seats at RBR and Ferrari were tied up for 2013 by Webber and Massa. So a quick move to RBR could be possible IF Vettel goes to Ferrari, which seems less and less likely given his recent comments about seeing out his contract.

Here's the thing... How much do we think Mercedes can improve next season? They can't get a whole lot worse so the only way can be up... I hope. Given their resources they were easily one of the worse teams in 2012...but can they even hope to improve over the winter when they are still playing catch-up on teams who are futher developing cars that are already competitive? I hope they can for Hamiltons sake, but I don't see it and even though I rate Hamilton highly, I don't believe he can drive around the issues in that car.

 

With such a lack of testing these days it makes you wonder how much actual input a driver has in development anymore. There seems to be a lot of gambling on new components that have only been developed using simulator data that then essentially turns practice sessions in to test sessions. There seems to be a lot of "whack this on the car and hope it works" on race weekends.

 

I have mused over this many times. The driver can only give feedback when he's driving the car for a short space of time during practice. If it doesn;t work, its back to the drawings board for a new part to be bolted on to the car.

It seems the days of fine tuning a car during in-season testing sessions, where someone with a real feel for the cars could get an advantage, are now gone. Take Schuey, at Ferrari/Benetton they could do the testing in-season between races especially with the tyres, but at Mercedes he can;t, so has that taken away one of the aspects he was good at?

 

If Hamilton can rag the balls off the car, which I am sure he can. What will that help with?

Mercedes have a problem within car development, not with the drivers. Is it that Lewis will grab a few more points vital for a larger budget?

If so, Mercedes already have a gold pot to play with, and nothing has worked for 3 years, accept from a gimmicky rear wing.

 

I'd say it's taken away a fairly big chunk from somebody like Schumacher. The ability to fine tune and really tailor a car to a driver has to be very difficult now, and it was fairly clear that the Merc of 2012 had some fairly terrible handling/aero issues at times that were just never overcome.

I think the issue with the lack of testing is that it makes it so much harder to be competitive over a whole season if your car doesn't start out in reasonably good place. Ferrari seemed to suffer quite a bit from that this season. They started out with a dog of a car, and though they did improve, they almost always appeared to be on the back foot.

 

So basically if you start off ****, you stay there (+ or -) a couple places.

 

It might make it more difficult to improve.... not impossible but certainly much harder.

I guess there's two ways to look at it though, it means the richer teams don't leave those with less to spend on testing totally in the dust.

 

I'd argue that in the middle of the season the Ferrari was the fastest car out there so it is POSSIBLE.

 

Oh yeah... it's not impossible, but if you arrive at the first race with a handful of a car, I'd think it makes it much more of an uphill battle to get to grips with it than it might have in the past. In '09 it took McLaren the best part of half a season to get on top of the car. It might not have been that painful in previous years.