On Friday it finally became official: Hamilton will leave McLaren at the end of this season and will replace Schumacher at Mercedes AMG in 2013! There had been talks about Hamilton leaving the British team already during the summer and there had been many signs showing that Hamilton didn´t feel very comfortable with the team any more. No celebrations with the team members after conquerring pole for example... You don´t have to be a scientist to figure out that something wasn´t right any more.
In terms of Hamilton´s career going to Mercedes is a huge risk! Hamilton has been with McLaren since he was 13 years old and the team has always been able to provide him with a competitive car. It hasn´t always been the best on the grid but the team has had all the resources needed to develop the car and improve their performance. This is about to change when Hamilton goes to Mercedes next year. Although they also have all the financial prerequisites to build a winning car there has been only very little success by this far. But for Hamilton it´s very healthy and maybe eyes-opening to start with a team where you have to develop both yourself and the car in order to gain success. Starting his F1 career at McLaren meant that the Briton got to start his career at a top team and didn´t have to fight his way through to gain success. At Mercedes he can´t take the success for granted any more but he has to work extremely hard to win races. Next year we´ll see how talented and skillful Hamilton really is! Is his success all about getting everything "on a silver plate" or is it because of his talent and skills? Can´t wait to see!
Hamilton himself has said that he made this move not because of money but because of motivation. Although you can´t completely ignore the fact that the Briton is said to get about 100 million dollars for the three year contract with Mercedes I can understand his point. McLaren is the only team where he has ever competed with during his entire F1 career and he has already won the world championship title with the team. There isn´t much more to achieve, is there? Moving to Mercedes will be a fresh start for the Briton and will definitely mean new challenges for him. But the question is, whether the man has the right attitude to face the challenge... This is my opinion only but Hamilton seems kind of arrogant and I get a feeling that his feet aren´t firmly on the ground any more. All the talks about him wanting to create a "Hamilton brand" and stuff like that... Is his focus on F1 racing slowly slipping through his fingers? He should look in to the mirror and ask himself why not everyone liked his personality at McLaren. I started feeling some sympathy for the Briton last season when he had difficulties in his personal life and they were reflected to his driving. I can understand easily that a pay check of 100 million dollars make you lose the grip to the "real world" but I hope that he will be able to find his down to earth side of him very soon. I mean he is an excellent racing driver, no doubt about that.
About the other moves then. I was stunned when I read about Perez replacing Hamilton at McLaren in 2013! I couldn´t have imagined that in my wildest dreams! In terms of Perez´s career it´s an absolutely awesome move! And the Mexican is definitely one of the drivers that we´ll hear a lot about in the future. I´m sure that they will regret it a lot at Ferrari that they thought Perez was too "inexperienced to become a Ferrari driver." Perez has achieved already three podium finishes this season and I´m convinced there are more to come in the future.
Perez leaving the team means there is a vacant race seat at Sauber for 2013. Maybe even two if Kobayashi doesn´t get a new contract with the team. Who will replace Perez then? As a Finn I would love to see Heikki Kovalainen at Sauber next year. He has done a tremendously good job at Caterham, at the wheel of such a lousy car he has got the best out of it. But I´m afraid getting the seat at Sauber isn´t a question of talent but money... I wouldn´t be surprised to see the Sauber´s reserve driver Esteban Gutierrez getting the seat. He has a huge sponsor supporting him so money wouldn´t be a problem. I´ve also heard rumours saying that Alguersuari would get the seat. Nothing has been confirmed yet...
What about Ferrari? Will Massa get one more year with the Prancing Horse? I´m sorry to say this but I hope not! It´s unbelievable how long the Brazilian has been allowed to stay in the team despite his lousy performance. But there have been rumours that Massa would be offered one more year in the team because no driver would like to get only a one year contract with the team as it´s said that Vettel will move to Ferrari for the season 2014... It´s very difficult for me to believe this would be true! Somehow I can´t see both Vettel and Alonso driving in the same team! Sorry but that´s impossible. Alonso has always needed a team where he is the number one driver. I guess we can all remember what happened when Alonso and Hamilton were both at McLaren. Two equally talented drivers fighting for success didn´t work out for Alonso so I don´t see that driving for the same team with Vettel would be any easier for the Spaniard! But what I´ve learned, Formula 1 is a wondrous world where anything can happen so the word "impossible" doesn´t exist!
Before the season 2013 begins there are still 6 races to go and a world championship to win! So back to this season and one thing that has caught my eye recently. I have tweeted to the Finnish F1 reporter and commentator Oskari Saari a few times and asked for an interview of Heikki Huovinen, who is Vettel´s trainer at the moment. Saari answered to me writing that all the interview requests have been denied by the team. I can´t help wondering about the reasons for that! Sebastian´s former trainer Tommi (Pärmäkoski) was interviewed quite a few times by the Finnish media during the previous season and I can´t see that Tommi would have caused any harm either for the team or his trainee by his comments! From my selfish point of view I´d absolutely love to hear Heikki´s comments on his work but I do respect that not everyone enjoys the publicity. Sebastian seems to have a lot in common with Kimi Räikkönen: neither one enjoys the publicity or wants to be in the lime light. And the same implies to Antti Vierula, who works as Hamilton´s trainer. He too is not allowed to give any interviews. Which would be so great to hear and it may help getting a better image of the Briton who hasn´t got the best possible reputation... But the reasons for not being allowed to give interviews can only be guessed.
This is the reason why I prefer Facebook to Twitter: I can´t write anything SHORTLY! Writing something with only 140 letters is almost impossible for me, hahaha! I wonder if anyone managed to read this blog post without falling asleep in the halfway... But I love writing about Formula 1 and this is a great way to cope with the withdrawal symptoms as it´s a race-free weekend! :)
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