There is no doubt that McLaren have the faster car at the
moment, and the chances are that they will have a fast car again next season. So
why has Hamilton decided to move when he ‘just wants to win’? Money and
sponsors have played a big part in the deal with Mercedes being able to offer
him more money and greater personal sponsor freedom so he can top up his
earnings, whilst making a bigger brand of himself. This is what his XIX
Entertainment management team would want as they would turn Hamilton into his
own brand rather than be stuck with McLaren’s sponsors and be associated with
the team instead. This would also bring a lot of money into XIX as they would
take a substantial percentage of his earnings, so from their point of view
Mercedes was the team to go for. Financially, it makes sense, but race
performance is different. With the current cars, Hamilton would struggle to get
podiums, let alone wins, unlike the McLaren where he already has 3 wins this
season. Mercedes have had a mixed season; they got their first win since 1955
in China, but have mostly been in the bottom half of the top 10 for the rest of
it, which is not where Hamilton would want to be. To satisfy Hamilton’s desire
to win races, Mercedes need to improve and now is the perfect time. Hamilton
has been promised #1 priority in the team, so the car will be built around him
and will be made to suit him best which he hasn’t been able to get entirely
from McLaren due to team mates such as Alonso and Button. Mercedes could also
benefit from having a driver suited to the car. Since coming back into Formula
One, Mercedes have had Schumacher, which was good for publicity and selling
merchandise, but it was never a real long term option, so they wouldn’t have
entirely based the car around him or Rosberg, as he would be leaving and a new
driver would come in. This is Mercedes first chance to focus on the long term
success, now they have a stable, long term driver line-up, and team principle
Ross Brawn knows what it takes after achieving a similar feat with Schumacher
at Ferrari. Initially, McLaren should have the upper hand over Mercedes, but
with a wave of new technical regulations coming in 2014, and Mercedes long term
focus, who knows where they will be this time in two years. Hamilton will be
hoping they’ve stepped up to prove his gamble right.
With this comes many other driver changes, as McLaren needed
to act quickly to get a replacement for Hamilton after initially stating they
had no ‘plan b’ if Hamilton left. McLaren snapped up Perez from Sauber who has
had a fantastic season so far, challenging for wins and gaining 3 podiums this
year in a midfield car. Perez has been part of the Ferrari driver programme for
the past few years, so earlier in the year it was expected that he would
replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari next season, but this was dismissed by Ferrari
president Luca di Montezemolo, claiming that Perez didn’t have enough
experience. This combined with Perez stating that being part of the Ferrari
programme didn’t restrict what team he drives for meant McLaren were keen to
sign him up to replace Hamilton. This would satisfy both McLaren and Ferrari as
it means McLaren have a highly skilled driver coming with the benefit of extra
sponsors, whilst Ferrari can sit back and let him gain the top team experience
he needs. Once Perez is doing well and consistently challenging for wins and
championships, I feel Ferrari could easily take him back. Ferrari is the team
Perez would most want to drive for, especially being part of their driver
programme, so when Ferrari say the word, Perez will join.
This still leaves Sauber with a spare seat and Schumacher
without a drive. Peter Sauber said if Schumacher ever became available then he
would try to sign him ‘immediately’. This means that if Schumacher decides to
stay in F1, there will almost certainly be a space for him. Unfortunately for
him, there is no space in the top teams for him with Red Bull, McLaren,
Mercedes and Lotus having full driver line ups. There is Ferrari, but a Ferrari
‘spokesman’ said there is more chance of them signing Alberto Ascari than there
is of signing Schumacher. This means the best team Schumacher could get into
would be Sauber, but then there is the question of whether he wants to risk his
reputation further by racing for a lower team. He has already arguably damaged
his legacy already by coming out of retirement with Mercedes, so carrying on at
an even lower team would no doubt damage it further. However, there could be a
solution: Schumacher has been tipped for a team management job, so he could
maybe try and combine racing and management/ownership. Schumacher has earned
quite a bit of money in his time in F1, so he could quite easily buy a stake in
a team (HRT for example) to become a team owner and be one of the drivers
himself. A similar idea was proposed by Jacques Villeneuve with Stefan GP, but
they didn’t make it to the grid. A Schumacher owned and branded team with him
racing would bring floods of sponsorship money and an instant fan base due to
his contacts, sponsors and fans, as well as receiving good coverage. The money
coming in could transform a small team, and could send them up the grid, making
it a success and repairing some of Schumacher’s damaged reputation.
With all the fuss about driver line-ups flooding round the
paddock, it could be said that the main winners out of it will be Red Bull.
They sorted out their driver line-up months ago so they can spend this crucial
time of the season focusing on what matters, the championship. The other teams
may be doing well, but they have been focusing efforts on sorting out drivers
which could be pivotal in this year’s closely fought championship.
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