Hamilton to move to Mercedes

[kartingsteve]

Lewis Hamilton is to leave McLaren and sign to race for Mercedes from next season.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19755236

[asperformance]

hardly "news" is it........been a poorly kept secret for months now and hopefully will now stop his whining.........

[Steve_PPP]

Must be totally driven by £££, unless Ross Brawn pulls a major rabbit out the hat he won't be winning much at Mercedes.

News is reporting Perez to replace Lewis at McLaren, great opportunity for him if that comes off. Would have been nice to see Di Resta get the McLaren seat though, and keep it a proper British team

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

Must be totally driven by £££, unless Ross Brawn pulls a major rabbit out the hat he won't be winning much at Mercedes.

News is reporting Perez to replace Lewis at McLaren, great opportunity for him if that comes off. Would have been nice to see Di Resta get the McLaren seat though, and keep it a proper British team

Agreed, would be great to see Di Resta there. Its a shame with lewis, but he clearly hasnt been happy for a while judging by his attitude after races, even if he has won. I think he should have gone to Williams and driven with Maldonado

[Anger]

If you look into it more Steve, there's more money at Mercedes to develop the car for the new 2014 rules and Vodaphone are prop goin to pull out of sponsorship for Mclaren, I don't think it's a decision purely for money, you only have to see his body language to know there was still something not right between him and Mclaren

[Stevie.P]

Originally Posted by Anger

If you look into it more Steve, there's more money at Mercedes to develop the car for the new 2014 rules and Vodaphone are prop goin to pull out of sponsorship for Mclaren, I don't think it's a decision purely for money, you only have to see his body language to know there was still something not right between him and Mclaren

I noticed that too matie watchig the race as he was walking back towards the pitts.......

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Anger

If you look into it more Steve, there's more money at Mercedes to develop the car for the new 2014 rules and Vodaphone are prop goin to pull out of sponsorship for Mclaren, I don't think it's a decision purely for money, you only have to see his body language to know there was still something not right between him and Mclaren

Thats a good point James.

[Steve_PPP]

Originally Posted by Anger

If you look into it more Steve, there's more money at Mercedes to develop the car for the new 2014 rules and Vodaphone are prop goin to pull out of sponsorship for Mclaren, I don't think it's a decision purely for money, you only have to see his body language to know there was still something not right between him and Mclaren

Swings and roundabouts. I'm sure McLaren wouldn't have a problem finding a sponsor to replace Vodafone if they needed to.

McLaren have been around for 30 or 40 years. Mercedes have been around for less than 3. Long term security in the sport wouldn't be with a manufacturer in my opinion, who's to say Merc's profit won't fall in the next two years (think about the Eurozone...) and they decide to pull the plug on what is effectively a massively expensive promotional exercise?

Look at some of the consistent names in F1 - McLaren, Williams, Sauber, Red Bull, Torro Rosso - all independent teams. Look at recent Manufacturer teams - BMW, Renault, Toyota, Honda - where are they now? The manufacturers certainly have past form for deciding to bail out when the going gets tough.

The only exception to the rule is Ferrari, for good reason.....

[simba]

i think di Resta is good candidate for fezza i think lewis needs to go and the 2014 changes and merc have been working hard to prep for that season and Perez good number 2 too button will make him pull his socks up a bit and stop going on about understeer

[Bolesroor]

`Agreed, would be great to see Di Resta there` +1

I would have liked to have seen him at Mclaren but I think Perez has lots of potential.