Hamilton to Mercedes - Confirmed

**wedge** · 15th October 2012, 12:55

Not a good stint in East Asia:

In keeping with previous years, Hamilton had booked a bowling alley in Suzuka for the Saturday night of the Japanese Grand Prix, where he had intended to say a few words about his impending departure, but was forced to cancel when a number of the team went on a charity track run with his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button instead.

“I booked 16 lanes at the bowling alley for Saturday night, but something else came up so the guys weren’t able to do it,” Hamilton explained.

Korean Grand Prix 2012: Lewis Hamilton loses out to Jenson Button in his race to say his goodbyes at McLaren - Telegraph

**Mark** · 15th October 2012, 15:55

Talk about being snubbed.

**F1boat** · 15th October 2012, 17:02

Originally Posted by henners88

With the rumours circulating that Vettel has signed for Ferrari in 2014 I think Helmut will be smiling less in future. It is certainly an arrogant statement, but all teams do it to wind up the opposition.

Unless they have a replacement for Seb... Raikkonen, maybe.

**steveaki13** · 15th October 2012, 21:36

Poor Lewis. I feel sorry for him.

I really hope Mercedes produce a good car next year like the 2009 brawn and Lewis has a chance to push flat out and have a shot at the title.

Would be so nice to see him with a smile on his face again.

As for the rest, by 2014 we could see an amazing line up. Lewis & Nico Mercedes, Alonso & Vettel Ferrari would be great, Button & Perez Mclaren & Red BUll ?? Webber might be a bit old by then.

**zako85** · 16th October 2012, 08:35

Originally Posted by aki13

Poor Lewis. I feel sorry for him.

I really hope Mercedes produce a good car next year like the 2009 brawn and Lewis has a chance to push flat out and have a shot at the title.

Would be so nice to see him with a smile on his face again.

As for the rest, by 2014 we could see an amazing line up. Lewis & Nico Mercedes, Alonso & Vettel Ferrari would be great, Button & Perez Mclaren & Red BUll ?? Webber might be a bit old by then.

If Vettel's seat is vacated, RBR, who have no clear replacement for him, could become an attractive team for a disgruntled high flier. I can see Kimi Raikkonen, Alonso, or Hamilton start longing for that seat if things don't go well for at least one of them in 2013.

**dj_bytedisaster** · 16th October 2012, 11:39

Originally Posted by henners88

Do you think Red Bull will be as attractive to the drivers you have mentioned considering its highly likely Newey will be leaving in the next few years? He's hinted about stepping away from F1 to follow new challenges like designing racing yachts and was only kept on after a massive pay rise. I think Red Bull will be a very different team in 3 or 4 years time.

The rumour about designing racing yachts already surfaced during his stint at McLaren. What stands out, though is that Newey left Williams after a few years, then McLaren after 8 or 9 years and he's now been 6 years at RB, so I guess he'll soon be off for good or off to a different team again.
I think Red Bull will stay attractive to other drivers, as Newey is by no means as head and shoulders above his fellow designers any more in comparison to the late nineties, when Rory Byrne was the only designer to keep up with him. In fact this years RB8 didn't exactly start out as the car to beat. The early season McLaren had the upper hand and it took him until the second half of the season to put the car at the pointy end of the pack again. I think he's still the designer to have, but he's by no means irreplacable

**wedge** · 16th October 2012, 14:34

I've always had a sneaking suspicion (I'm an armchair critic cum internet nobody) that expansion and signing a number of big names might be a problem even for Ross Brawn as big chief but it seems it could well be the case as raised by Gary Anderson:

I've been speaking to a few of the guys there and they say there are so many people that nobody makes any decisions any more.

It's only three years since the same team - then called Brawn - won the championship.

OK, they had lots of Honda money to develop the car and the secret weapon of the 'double diffuser', and it wouldn't have happened without that. But back then it was a one-man band with Ross Brawn leading the team - and then, when Honda pulled out and they cut the workforce back, it was even more like that.

Now, after a major recruitment programme, they have a multi-man band and there are four guys in there who have been technical directors at other teams all doing different roles.

Meanwhile, Red Bull have Adrian Newey. He has a great team of people around him but he is the captain of the ship.

Brawn argues that everyone at Mercedes has defined roles and knows what they're supposed to be doing and the parameters of their responsibility.

But you have to look at their slide in performance after a promising start to this season and say something is going badly wrong there.

BBC Sport - Gary Anderson column: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel favourite for title

**AndyL** · 16th October 2012, 15:16

Originally Posted by wedge

I've always had a sneaking suspicion (I'm an armchair critic cum internet nobody) that expansion and signing a number of big names might be a problem even for Ross Brawn as big chief but it seems it could well be the case as raised by Gary Anderson:

It's the classic big-company problem isn't it. Too many meetings, too little action. A problem that has afflicted well-funded manufacturer teams in the past.

**CaptainRaiden** · 19th October 2012, 22:01

I got curious and was looking at qualifying grids and comparison between Rosberg and Button from this year's races.

Here's the data I got from F1 Fanatic: 2012 F1 qualifying data - F1 Fanatic

Average AUS MAL CHI BAH SPA MON CAN EUR BRI GER HUN BEL ITA SIN JAP KOR

Jenson Button 6.63 2 2 5 4 10 12 10 9 16 6 4 1 2 4 8 11

Nico Rosberg 9.06 7 7 1 5 6 2 5 6 11 21 13 23 6 10 13 9

Nico was doing quite well until Germany, outqualifying Button in a supposedly inferior Mercedes, leading the score at 6-3. He's either making that Mercedes look better than it is or Button is making that Mclaren look really bad, at least in qualifying. Apart from his dominant victory at China this year, Rosberg really doesn't strike me as a top tier driver, especially when it comes to his race pace.

Of course it all went downhill for Nico and Mercedes from Germany onwards, because of a couple of unforeseen circumstances and also Mercedes starting to lose the development battle to the front running teams.

I would rate Nico and Button as equal talent wise. Seeing how Lewis destroyed Button in qualifying this year, I would rate him higher than both of them. A lot of ifs and buts, but I think Mercedes had a good car this year, and were let down by their drivers. I think Lewis might have done a much better job with that car and MIGHT have a realistic shot at the title next year.

Pure speculation of course.