-
Home
- TV Shows
- TV Schedule
- NASCAR
-
Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Games
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
- Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
- Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
Formula 1
COOPER: Hamilton To Mercedes A Good Move
Lewis Hamilton's decision to leave McLaren for Mercedes was a sensible choice...
Lewis Hamilton's lengthy run at McLaren will end soon. (Photo: Getty Images)
After a momentous week for F1, it was back to normal business in Suzuka on Friday. For once we had a bright, sunny Friday – unusual anywhere this year and a rare sight in Japan – but aside from accidents for Michael Schumacher and Paul Di Resta, it was a relatively low-key day.
Inevitably, conversations up and down the paddock remain dominated by the three key pieces of news that emerged over the past seven days, namely Lewis Hamilton’s move to Mercedes, Sergio Perez’s switch to McLaren, and of course Michael Schumacher’s second retirement announcement. And on top of all that, there’s plenty of speculation about what happens next on the driver market, with the second Ferrari seat the key to any permutation.
Hamilton’s Mercedes move is the biggest topic, of course, with opinions still split about what it means, and how it will turn out. I caught up with Lewis for a friendly chat about various things not connected with racing, and he was in a really good mood, and gave the impression that he was serenely confident not just about next year but this weekend and how the rest of the season might turn out.
As I said, we didn’t talk about racing, but when I left I mentioned that personally I thought he’d made a good move. Since his name was first connected with Mercedes, I’d felt it was a sensible choice for Lewis if he felt that it was time for a change of scenery after being part of the McLaren furniture for so long. And, in any case, Ferrari and Red Bull were not open to him, so where else could be look?
Mercedes might have been only the fourth or fifth best team since Brawn GP was renamed and Schumacher came on board, but what matters is the potential of the group that has been put together by Ross Brawn over the past 18 months or so, and which should really pay dividends next year – and even more so as we move into the turbo era in 2014, and having a bunch of experienced technical leaders in your team will be a huge asset.
Time will tell if it does work – and you could argue that Mercedes hasn’t made a lot of progress over these past three years – but at least the clear opportunity is there for it all to come together.
Lewis has made it clear that he wants to do what Michael Schumacher did at Benetton and Ferrari (if not quite at Mercedes), and drive the team forward. And you have to say that his own little bit of magic behind the wheel will make a contribution, as well. Nico Rosberg will still give him a hard time and sometimes be ahead in qualifying or races, but drivers of the caliber of Hamilton can always find that little bit extra.
Meanwhile, Hamilton has the 2012 championship to win, and it’s very much a possibility given McLaren’s pace in recent weeks. Team boss Martin Whitmarsh arrived Friday morning, and made it clear that while from the outside it might look a little awkward, it won’t affect what happens on the track over the next few weeks.
“I think he’s focused and the team is focused,” he told BBC radio. “Between myself, Lewis, Jenson (Button) and everyone in the team, we want to win the remaining six races. ... That’s what we’re here for, that’s what we like trying to do. Given that I sense we’ve got a competitive car, it’s always fun to go motor racing when you’ve got a competitive car.
“There’s six races to be won, and there’s potentially two titles. I think Lewis has made that clear, as well, in the media yesterday. That’s what he’s focused on, and the conversations I’ve had with Lewis since I arrived this morning have been just about that: Let’s make sure we do a bloody good job here and see if we can go away with a victory.”
Indeed in the McLaren hospitality on Friday, I saw Lewis and Martin sitting at a table in conversation, and all seemed as normal.
The intriguing thing, though, is that apparently Hamilton has yet to hear from his former mentor Ron Dennis, and Whitmarsh was a little cagey on that subject: “I can’t speak for Ron, but I think Ron is not as directly involved and hasn’t been for a few years with Lewis. I’m sure he’s got his own views on the matter. I wouldn’t want to guess what they are or quote them.”
Whitmarsh, meanwhile, is excited about the future, and clearly Sergio Perez has already made a very positive impression. Martin made it clear that the deal was done very soon after Hamilton called to say he was off.
“There have been discussions with a number of drivers over the last few months, but I guess you can say about half an hour after my conversation on the Wednesday following Singapore, we upped the pace of that process, and it didn’t take very long, frankly.”
Whitmarsh is adamant that McLaren has gotten the right man, and I’m inclined to agree. Clearly, the likes of Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg have great potential, too, but none of us can say now who will be the next Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton. Perez is a solid choice, and if he comes with huge commercial benefits, why not take him? In contrast, both the Force India drivers would have to be negotiated out of contracts.
“I think we’ve been studying the data, we’ve got quite a lot of data on him, as we do on all the drivers,” said Whitmarsh. “Last year in Monaco he did the fastest lap, he did a fantastic drive in his rookie year. Obviously, he’s had some giant-slaying performances, some of which have been overtaking Ferraris in the course of this year.
“He is young and that means that he hasn’t necessarily got the experience that you’d associate with one of our drivers, but he’s very intelligent, very ambitious and driven, and he’s obviously got natural talent. We’ll see. I think it’s quite interesting and it’s going to be quite an exciting winter.
“We did a pretty reasonable job in preparing Lewis. He’s actually about the same age as Lewis was when Lewis debuted in our team. At that time there were people who were critical of McLaren for putting a youngster in, and that youngster did an incredible job. The first nine races he was on the podium. We worked very hard to achieve that, and we’re looking forward to seeing if we can do it again with Sergio.
“Paul’s a great driver, I’ve known Paul personally for quite some time, and we’ve tried to help him in his career. Paul was a contender, clearly, and we had a people like Hulkenberg, etc., but bear in mind they are both contracted. I’m sure we could have done a deal if we’d wanted to. Sergio is very young, he’s had some outstanding races, and I think that a lot of people would accept that at the moment he’s one of the most exciting young talents in F1.”
Time will tell how these new relationships will work out. Whatever happens, it can only be good for F1 to have a shakeup at the front after three years when the top teams kept stable lineups. Now we just have to wait and see what Ferrari decides to do.
Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
Inevitably, conversations up and down the paddock remain dominated by the three key pieces of news that emerged over the past seven days, namely Lewis Hamilton’s move to Mercedes, Sergio Perez’s switch to McLaren, and of course Michael Schumacher’s second retirement announcement. And on top of all that, there’s plenty of speculation about what happens next on the driver market, with the second Ferrari seat the key to any permutation.
Hamilton’s Mercedes move is the biggest topic, of course, with opinions still split about what it means, and how it will turn out. I caught up with Lewis for a friendly chat about various things not connected with racing, and he was in a really good mood, and gave the impression that he was serenely confident not just about next year but this weekend and how the rest of the season might turn out.
As I said, we didn’t talk about racing, but when I left I mentioned that personally I thought he’d made a good move. Since his name was first connected with Mercedes, I’d felt it was a sensible choice for Lewis if he felt that it was time for a change of scenery after being part of the McLaren furniture for so long. And, in any case, Ferrari and Red Bull were not open to him, so where else could be look?
Mercedes might have been only the fourth or fifth best team since Brawn GP was renamed and Schumacher came on board, but what matters is the potential of the group that has been put together by Ross Brawn over the past 18 months or so, and which should really pay dividends next year – and even more so as we move into the turbo era in 2014, and having a bunch of experienced technical leaders in your team will be a huge asset.
Time will tell if it does work – and you could argue that Mercedes hasn’t made a lot of progress over these past three years – but at least the clear opportunity is there for it all to come together.
Lewis has made it clear that he wants to do what Michael Schumacher did at Benetton and Ferrari (if not quite at Mercedes), and drive the team forward. And you have to say that his own little bit of magic behind the wheel will make a contribution, as well. Nico Rosberg will still give him a hard time and sometimes be ahead in qualifying or races, but drivers of the caliber of Hamilton can always find that little bit extra.
Meanwhile, Hamilton has the 2012 championship to win, and it’s very much a possibility given McLaren’s pace in recent weeks. Team boss Martin Whitmarsh arrived Friday morning, and made it clear that while from the outside it might look a little awkward, it won’t affect what happens on the track over the next few weeks.
“I think he’s focused and the team is focused,” he told BBC radio. “Between myself, Lewis, Jenson (Button) and everyone in the team, we want to win the remaining six races. ... That’s what we’re here for, that’s what we like trying to do. Given that I sense we’ve got a competitive car, it’s always fun to go motor racing when you’ve got a competitive car.
“There’s six races to be won, and there’s potentially two titles. I think Lewis has made that clear, as well, in the media yesterday. That’s what he’s focused on, and the conversations I’ve had with Lewis since I arrived this morning have been just about that: Let’s make sure we do a bloody good job here and see if we can go away with a victory.”
Indeed in the McLaren hospitality on Friday, I saw Lewis and Martin sitting at a table in conversation, and all seemed as normal.
The intriguing thing, though, is that apparently Hamilton has yet to hear from his former mentor Ron Dennis, and Whitmarsh was a little cagey on that subject: “I can’t speak for Ron, but I think Ron is not as directly involved and hasn’t been for a few years with Lewis. I’m sure he’s got his own views on the matter. I wouldn’t want to guess what they are or quote them.”
Whitmarsh, meanwhile, is excited about the future, and clearly Sergio Perez has already made a very positive impression. Martin made it clear that the deal was done very soon after Hamilton called to say he was off.
“There have been discussions with a number of drivers over the last few months, but I guess you can say about half an hour after my conversation on the Wednesday following Singapore, we upped the pace of that process, and it didn’t take very long, frankly.”
Whitmarsh is adamant that McLaren has gotten the right man, and I’m inclined to agree. Clearly, the likes of Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg have great potential, too, but none of us can say now who will be the next Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton. Perez is a solid choice, and if he comes with huge commercial benefits, why not take him? In contrast, both the Force India drivers would have to be negotiated out of contracts.
“I think we’ve been studying the data, we’ve got quite a lot of data on him, as we do on all the drivers,” said Whitmarsh. “Last year in Monaco he did the fastest lap, he did a fantastic drive in his rookie year. Obviously, he’s had some giant-slaying performances, some of which have been overtaking Ferraris in the course of this year.
“He is young and that means that he hasn’t necessarily got the experience that you’d associate with one of our drivers, but he’s very intelligent, very ambitious and driven, and he’s obviously got natural talent. We’ll see. I think it’s quite interesting and it’s going to be quite an exciting winter.
“We did a pretty reasonable job in preparing Lewis. He’s actually about the same age as Lewis was when Lewis debuted in our team. At that time there were people who were critical of McLaren for putting a youngster in, and that youngster did an incredible job. The first nine races he was on the podium. We worked very hard to achieve that, and we’re looking forward to seeing if we can do it again with Sergio.
“Paul’s a great driver, I’ve known Paul personally for quite some time, and we’ve tried to help him in his career. Paul was a contender, clearly, and we had a people like Hulkenberg, etc., but bear in mind they are both contracted. I’m sure we could have done a deal if we’d wanted to. Sergio is very young, he’s had some outstanding races, and I think that a lot of people would accept that at the moment he’s one of the most exciting young talents in F1.”
Time will tell how these new relationships will work out. Whatever happens, it can only be good for F1 to have a shakeup at the front after three years when the top teams kept stable lineups. Now we just have to wait and see what Ferrari decides to do.
Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
Grand Prix of Bahrain
LATEST HEADLINES: FORMULA-ONE
-
F1: Valencia Wants Lower Fee For F1 Return
Valencia hopes to annually alternate a spot on the Formula One calendar… -
F1: Hulkenberg Leaves Door Open For Ferrari Future
Nico Hulkenberg is attracted by the idea of a future move to Ferrari...… -
F1: Whitmarsh Denies Honda Factor In Lowe Release
Martin Whitmarsh says Paddy Lowe's early exit wasn't tied to the… -
F1: Vettel Urges F1 To Rethink Tire 'Recipe'
Sebastian Vettel believes the Pirelli tire needs some work... -
F1: Pirelli Confirms Canada Changes 'Less' Than Announced
Reports are the F1 supplier will now make only minimal changes to… -
F1: Series Owner CVC Votes To Keep Ecclestone Despite Charges
F1's owners have voted to keep Bernie Ecclestone at the helm of the… -
F1: Grand Prix News Briefs (Update 2)
Toto Wolff is disappointed with McLaren's move to link up with works… - More News
