Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren for Mercedes

[Red Light]

Coulthard/Webber/Massa/Alonso and even to an extent Hamilton locking out someone else who could reasonably be there.

Another comeback in the offing?

 

[ASC1951]

My prediction for next years F1

Boring as normal

Yep! Tyre-changing races for squillionaires.

 

[levad]

Yep! Tyre-changing races for squillionaires.

Employment for some of us .... (no, not at Mclaren)

 

[Archie_tect]

The cars may as well be slot cars... unless someone breaks down it's virtually a procession.

 

[Peteaud]

The cars may as well be slot cars... unless someone breaks down it's virtually a procession.

Maybe it will change with new rules etc, but i doubt it.

 

[Archie_tect]

They should remove all the wings and aerodynamic gismos, so that downforce doesn't affect cornering and doesn't create turbulence for close passes, get rid of KERs and the turbos limiting the engine size to 1600 so that they are truly racing ... that would be fair and be far more exciting. AND make them run on a restricted amount of fuel so that fuel economy starts to really make a difference so that if they drive excessively wastefully they risk running out... that way fuel efficiency will become a design element in engines that can cross over to road cars.... or make F1 all electric!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

They should remove all the wings and aerodynamic gismos, so that downforce doesn't affect cornering and doesn't create turbulence for close passes, get rid of KERs and the turbos limiting the engine size to 1600 so that they are truly racing ... that would be fair and be far more exciting.

That sounds a lot like Formula Ford to me. Would be fun.

 

[Typhon]

I'm afraid I've lost interest in F1 since Sky stole half the races from the BBC. I refuse to pay the devil incarnate almost £1000 pa to watch advertised television so along with the season starting in Asia and thus the races being in at silly 'o' clock in the morning, I have missed almost all the races thus far.

It's a shame really as I did used to enjoy watching it, despite the lack of overtaking. C'est la vie.

 

[marinyork]

Seems a bit petulant of Lewis IMO, Merc arent a championship winning team and I dont think Hamilton has got the technical nous to get them there. If he wanted another drivers championship then Mac are the sure fire bet. Unfortunately money (and Simon Fullers' big cut) talk.

Whatever the car is like next year Hamilton will help mercedes in one crucial way vs Schumacher - qualifying. Schumacher hasn't been very good in the new qualifying format since he returned. It's hurt Mercedes quite a bit as he's been quite punchy in some races in terms of lap times but bogged down the field. Hamilton is a better qualifier than Schumacher (awaits some silly person to say but he had 68 pole positions).

 

[classic33]

Schumacher drove for more than one team though. Lewis has only drove for the one.
For me, its a kick in the teeth to Ron Dennis, the person who gave him the chance to drive in F1. As for enginges McLaren were working on fitting their own engines to their cars.

 

[Longshot]

They should remove all the wings and aerodynamic gismos, so that downforce doesn't affect cornering and doesn't create turbulence for close passes, get rid of KERs and the turbos limiting the engine size to 1600 so that they are truly racing ... that would be fair and be far more exciting. AND make them run on a restricted amount of fuel so that fuel economy starts to really make a difference so that if they drive excessively wastefully they risk running out... that way fuel efficiency will become a design element in engines that can cross over to road cars.... or make F1 all electric!

Disagree completely. There's plenty of other classes that do that type of thing. F1 would should be about the pinnacle of four wheeled motor sport. Screw economy. Put the skirts back, increase downforce, bolt on nitrous, turbos, rockets, anything to increase the speed.

 

[classic33]

Disagree completely. There's plenty of other classes that do that type of thing. F1 would should be about the pinnacle of four wheeled motor sport. Screw economy. Put the skirts back, increase downforce, bolt on nitrous, turbos, rockets, anything to increase the speed.

They can build them to go faster(increase the speed). However that would be of little use when the car has to take a corner. There is a trade-off between outright speed, speed around a circuit & keeping the whole package driveable.
There are also the rules regarding weight. Increase the weight in one area, decrease it in another. Would that mean driver safety is compromised to allow it to go faster.

 

[MrJamie]

Whitmarsh implied that McLaren offered him more money than Mercedes, but that the deal was lost over other conditions probably personal sponsorship/PR commitments etc and he wanted to keep his trophies too. Mercedes may have not looked that great, but they've been growing and improving since the shell of a team they took over from Brawn GP and Ross Brawn has more than half the WDC in the last 15 years iirc, so there's definitely potential and a good possibility that Merc will back Lewis as outright number 1 should he perform. I can see it working out for him in 2014 with merc's new engines and finances.

They can build them to go faster(increase the speed). However that would be of little use when the car has to take a corner. There is a trade-off between outright speed, speed around a circuit & keeping the whole package driveable.
There are also the rules regarding weight. Increase the weight in one area, decrease it in another. Would that mean driver safety is compromised to allow it to go faster.

Theres so much they could add to make them faster on the straights and the corners, you only have to look at banned tech like.. driver aids, 4wd, brake steering, active suspension, movable bodywork, double diffuser and then the massive restrictions on engine size/mapping, tyre size/compound, aero restrictions etc etc. I think despite the speed F1 is pretty safe compared to other motorsport, motorcycle racing, rallying, even oval racing, and could go faster. The main remaining danger is cockpit intrusion after Massa's incident and both Schumacher and Alonso have had cars skim their helmets at speed in the past couple of years. That said if they were allowed to go all out we wouldnt have such close racing.

I'm afraid I've lost interest in F1 since Sky stole half the races from the BBC. I refuse to pay the devil incarnate almost £1000 pa to watch advertised television so along with the season starting in Asia and thus the races being in at silly 'o' clock in the morning, I have missed almost all the races thus far.

It's a shame really as I did used to enjoy watching it, despite the lack of overtaking. C'est la vie.

I think next year its going to be taken off the HD package too, so youll only get the F1 channel if you have Sports. On the plus side, its more weekend time to go out

 

[Keith Oates]

Hamilton seems to have gone 'off the boil' in recent seasons so perhaps he feels a change is as good as a rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Hamilton seems to have gone 'off the boil' in recent seasons to perhaps he feels a change is as good as a rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've wondered if he had gone a bit stale over the last few seasons, too long in one team, too comfortable where he is.