Having thought about it Hamilton will stay at McLaren, where else, in all truth is he going to find a better opportinity, Ferrari ! Red Bull ! Nah.
Unless Mercedes get a fighting team ready in lets say another 1-2 years, I agree Lewis isn't going anywhere until either Alonso or Vettel moves.
Perhaps Lewis sees the opportunity of driving for RedBull as an opportunity, because of their recent dominance. Sadly, this could be a little short sighted on his part and may be be driven by his current frustration with Mclaren. I would guess that Hamilton already considers himself quicker than Button and Alonso, especially as he's raced them both in equivalent cars. In raw pace, he can match Alonso and is faster than Jenson and may well look at this as an opportunity to go up against Vettel "his nemesis". Weirdly, I think Vettel might actually consider it. It gives him the opportunity to race against one of the very few drivers rated to be as quick as he is. He may view it as a new challenge, another opportunity to cement himself as a great, if he could beat Lewis in a like for like car. He does like breaking records after all and taking a WDC with Lewis as team mate would be a superb scalp to have in his little black book, but this works both ways. Two champions is working at Mclaren (on the face of it at least), so perhaps RedBull might be thinking they could emulate the setup, even if it does have the potential to turn sour. I for one find it a mouth watering prospect, especially as Kubica could take Lewis's place, or Kobayashi, or even Di Resta, Perez.. the list goes on!!
It's a massive gamble to move to a team in 2013 because there's a major regulation change. Red Bull will be quick next season because Newey has a strangle hold on the current set of regulations, but the other edge to the sword is that they might be late moving on to the 2013 regs because they're fighting for a title. If Hamilton is at McLaren next season with a contract signed for Red Bull and McLaren are uncompetitive, whilst Ferrari fight Red Bull, he'll kick himself knowing that McLaren are planning on stealing a march on their rivals. He's still a young man, I'd concentrate on the next few seasons with McLaren, raise your stock (which he's damaged recently), and then see how the land lies in 2013.
I agree, he should sign a contract for McLaren until 2014 then see what to do. If Red Bull are willing to wait.
Well Webber wants to do at least one more season with Red Bull, if not maybe two, so that would then be perfect for Hamilton to take over if that's what he wants. I agree with AG about not wanting to change teams before the new regulations. I know Williams are already working on the 2013 car, to try and put them back at the front, so it might transpire that Williams is the place to go.
Yep, I agree with the pair of you. Incidentally, I would imagine most of the bigger teams have a group in their staff (however small) that are exploring possible avenues of design for 2013, wouldn't they?
Williams would be the place to go now. Have a season while they're ****e and then you look partly responsible for turning it round. Plus you might not want to be there in 2014 when they slide back down again like Brawn/Mercedes.
I would expect so, but Williams know they have no chance of doing anything much this season, and fully expect the same teams to dominate next year under the similar regulations, so are going for the impact. Red Bull especially can't afford to divide their resources quite so much, when they could easily lose a potential 4 championships out of it. For Mclaren or Ferrari to write off a season and a half is not easy for them to do. They'll have a small team exploring concepts, but I would imagine Williams have got a far higher percentage of staff working on it.
I'd modify this statement to "Every team wants Adrian Newey". As you suggest SilverArrow, Vettel's and Newey's contracts are linked, which is why they both had an interest in the other when their respective contracts came up for renewal recently. Dietriech Mateschitz is also very keen on Vettel and might find his boat somewhat rocked if Hamilton were invited. Two's company but three's a crowd. If Vettel can continue to start races at the front, he has every chance of repetitive championships, so long as he remains unthreatened by a team mate. Obviously Hamilton wants a piece of the action; he sees it as his destiny. But it would not appear to be in Red Bull's immediate interest and for this reason one must conclude that it's just tough luck for Hamilton, who's best alternative is to somehow galvanise McLaren into becoming more competitive earlier in the season, or going to Ferrari - something that Alonso will make every effort to refuse.
May I join this page As long as Vettel and Newey keep winning then I can't see Hamilton there. If Red Bull stop winning will Hamilton want to go any more....
On another thread somewhere Manny mentioned that during yesterday's race he fantasised about Webber moving over and giving Schumacher the podium. I'm going to similarly indulge myself... The stranglehold that Ferrari and Schumacher had on the sport in the early 2000s was detrimental to its popularity. The lack of excitement and unpredictability caused by that and the general inability to overtake in F1 turned a lot of people off. There is a distinct possibility that Newey, Vettel and Red Bull will impose a similar numbness on the sport and, while there might be lots of action behind Vettel, there'll be little in the way of real excitement. There might be a fizz and a pop during the race but no real bang in Formula 1. I could see a scenario develop where, for the good of the sport, Red Bull would want the WDC to be a battle between its two drivers in a way that we never saw in Schumacher's time. In effect Formula 1 could become the Red Bull Racing Series. Of course, there's no guarantee that Newey's 2013 car will be the class of the field that his recent cars have been (and therefore it could be an enormous risk for Hamilton) but, if there is a massive shake-up of the regulations, then you'd have to suppose it may well be. If RBR is going to dominate in the years to come then I'd rather see competition come from within the team than have no competition at all. SilverArrow - you say Newey wants Webber but is that to the exclusion of all other options? In relation to Hamilton I think he should move on. Alonso once said that his ambition in F1 was to win a WDC with two different teams and I think that's the mark of a true, individual champion because it shows that, at the very top, the driver makes the difference. It's also something Schumacher never achieved.
Well....Benneton and Ferrari you can call different teams, but we both know half the crew from the previous team was there lol. Yes it could all go right with a Vettel vs Lewis combo, but worse case senario it could rip the team in two beyond repair and having Ron Dennis laugh in the backround knowing Newey will jump ship to either Ferrari or Mercedes.
Hamilton spokeperson denies Lewis and RBR chat: http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/hamilton_spokesman_denies_rumours_1_2770099 http://www.sportinglife.com/others/.../11/06/13/AUTO_Canadian_Hamilton.html&BID=678
Funny how the spokesman didn't outright deny a discussion took place, just that there were no discussions about Lewis' future. I think it's clear that Horner and Hamilton did indeed have a private chat - and Hamilton isn't the sort of person to have a "social visit" with the team boss of the team who's destroying him in the Championship. The article is PR nonsense imo.
