Lewis Hamilton chooses Mercedes

Today Lewis Hamilton made one of the biggest decisions of his career when it was announced that he has signed a three year contract to join Nico Rosberg at Mercedes from 2013; thereby leaving McLaren, the team he’s been with for half his life.

Is it a crazy decision? It’s certainly not the most expected decision despite the rumours, but we’ve all got to leave home sometime I suppose and stand on our own two feet, and in a way I think that’s exactly what Lewis has done. 

It’s a very brave decision to leave a team with the history and success of McLaren, but with Ross Brawn heading up the Stuttgart squad it’s surely only a matter of time before they’re consistently challenging for wins.

It’s an opportunity to create something that Michael Schumacher had with Brawn at Ferrari, an era of dominance. Whether Hamilton is as patient as Michael was to build a team up to sustain that success is another matter and one I’d question.

Of course you also have the image rights that seemed to crop up when people were weighing up the pros and cons of both teams. McLaren are notoriously strict concerning their drivers personal sponsors and the many days of PR has to do, whereas Mercedes will let Lewis’ IXI management exploit his marketing potential to earn him extra millions although the actual monetary offers to drive ended up being fairly similar.

Whether that was the tipping point to leave I don’t know but for someone who’s said many times he just wants to win, it’s a curious decision. 

Admittedly since Lewis’ brilliant first two years in Formula 1 when he ended up as World Champion, he has suffered some frustrating times.

McLaren couldn’t provide him a car to put up even a half decent title defence in 2009, and again in 2010 and 2011 the car has not been of the same calibre as the Red Bull, he’s had to watch as Sebastian Vettel took away his youngest ever world champion record from him, then rack up the poles and wins on his way to a dominant second title.

This has not sat well with him, because he knows his talent deserves more success than he’s been able to have. Lewis is almost certainly the fastest driver out there and his relative lack of success was evidently frustrating him. 

Coupled with off track issues he’s had and the fact he doesn’t seem to really get on with McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh quite as well as Jenson Button, he has at times seemed like quite a beleaguered figure.

This year started off nicely with pole position, but pit stop mistakes and unreliability have again cost him to the extent that with six races left, it’ll be a hard ask to win this years title when they’ve actually had a very competitive car. It’s not going to help their challenge either, there may be tension in the team now the decision has been made, and also any new parts and advancements for next year will be shielded from Lewis.

However, McLaren are great developers and Lewis has managed to win races every year he’s been in the sport. Mercedes have 1 win since they returned as a factory squad. Since their previous guise as Brawn, they haven’t looked anywhere near being consistent challengers.

But they do have Ross Brawn, they are a factory squad and in 2014 when there are major rule changes, especially to the engines when we get Turbo’s back, Mercedes would seem like the place to be, they make strong engines, and McLaren by then will be a customer team. They’ve also been strengthening their design departments over the last year and half, that’s got to come to fruition at some point.

So has Lewis made the right call? Only time will tell, but a Brawn project has rarely failed and if it goes right there’s no reason why he can’t aim for the success that Schumacher achieved at Ferrari. Hopefully he made the choice for the right reasons, but good luck to him, it’ll be quite the challenge, which is possibly just what he wanted.

Sergio Perez joins the top table

Of course that means there was a space at McLaren to fill, and Sergio Perez is that man. I think it’s a good choice, of the up and coming drivers he’s certainly been one of the best, his three podiums this year have been fantastic.

Ferrari still apparently deemed him to inexperienced for them to replace Felipe Massa, obviously McLaren think otherwise, but I think the Italian team may have missed out here, and privately they must be a bit annoyed after helping him with their young driver program.

It’ll be interesting to see how he copes in the top team environment. I think he’ll do well but I also think McLaren will be fairly devastated to lose the likes of Lewis as evidenced by them saying they think he's made a mistake to leave. Perez has room to develop but right now, they're lacking one of the top three drivers in the sport, the others being Alonso and Vettel.

Perez has been great in the races more often than not, but his team mate at Sauber Kamui Kobayashi has out qualified him a fair amount, and Jenson Button isn’t exactly renowned for being super fast on a Saturday.

However, they’re both great on a Sunday, it’ll be an interesting battle between Perez and Button, I can actually see Button thriving as the senior member of the team, and if he can get the car designed around him to give him what he wants more often, Lewis leaving could be the best thing ever for him.

What now for Michael Schumacher?

Of course this decision means a certain seven time champion has been pushed to the side lines. This wasn’t what was meant to happen, and it’s really quite sad that Schumacher’s career could end like this. I can imagine Mercedes coming good soon, and it’s a shame that he won’t be there to potentially reap the rewards, as despite silly crashes this is the fastest he’s been since his comeback, regularly as fast or faster than Rosberg.

He’s not announced retirement though, and rumours say he might go to Sauber. It would be strange for someone with his success to lower himself to Sauber, despite their fairly successful 2012. Then again, it would a completion of some weird circle as just before he drove in F1 he was driver for the Sauber-Mercedes sports car squad.

Ferrari haven't confirmed Massa yet, but a move there is highly unlikely.

According to Autosport, Mercedes started to pursue Hamilton when Schumacher couldn’t make a decision whether to continue driving or not, so in effect his indecisiveness has cost him his seat, but he was aware of what was happening, and perhaps his lack of announcement so far means he really is considering driving for another team.

So, that was an exciting day of Formula 1 news, first major change at one of the top 3 teams since 2010, it’ll be fascinating to see how it all works out next year. Meanwhile there’s still a championship to decide in 2012, McLaren and Lewis still have six races to pull this back.

all photo's from autosport.com