Lewis Hamilton shocked the Formula 1 caravan in September 2012 by announcing he would be leaving McLaren, the team he grew up with, to join Mercedes in 2013 as the retiring Michael Schumacher’s replacement.
Leaving a team like McLaren, the second oldest active outfit in the sport after Ferrari and one of the most successful, required guts. The 29-year-old literally grew up with the Woking-based team after famously telling the then team principal Ron Dennis that he would race for it one day.
“I want to race for you one day, I want to race for McLaren,” said Hamilton as a 10-year-old. McLaren, thereon, supported his racing career until he finally landed a team seat in 2007.
Mercedes, though involved in F1 mostly as engine suppliers to several teams, including McLaren, returned as a constructor in 2010 for the first time since 1955 when it bought Brawn GP, the 2009 constructors’ champion.
It did not make much of an impact in the first three years by finishing fourth, fourth and fifth in the standings, but last year it took a step forward by ending second behind Red Bull. The Brackley-based team also won three races, including the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix.
But this season saw some of the biggest changes in the sport’s history with the 2.4 litre V8 engines, introduced in 2006, being replaced by the 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engines.
And the efficient Mercedes engines have immediately shown results. The top-3 teams – Mercedes, Force India and McLaren – after three races this year are powered by Mercedes engines with legendary constructor Ferrari, using its own engines, down to fifth.
Hamilton’s decision shows his acumen. He had foreseen that engine-manufacturing teams might have an upper hand, with the new regulations, in 2014 and beyond.
The rule changes in 2009 saw Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel win both the available championships four times consecutively from 2010-13. For all we know, Mercedes can now dominate F1.
The German team has won all three races this season with Hamilton second in the drivers’ standings behind teammate Nico Rosberg. The 2008 World Champion has won two of the three races and might have even led the championship if he hadn’t retired from the season opening Australian Grand Prix where he took pole.
It will be a big surprise if Mercedes don’t go on to win both the championships this season. But the drivers’ title will be an interesting battle as it will be an open fight between the two friends – Rosberg and Hamilton.
Though Germany’s Rosberg (61 points) is leading the championship, Hamilton (50) has been more dominant. Apart from bagging the pole in Australia, he finished a staggering 17.313 seconds ahead of the German in Malaysia despite driving a similarly-configured machine.
At the Bahrain GP, the Briton really pressed the accelator much harder against Rosberg. The race saw a fantastic duel between the two with each one overtaking the other several times. Eventually, Hamilton’s superb driving skills clinched the race.
With the next race also at Hermann Tilke’s designed Shanghai International Circuit, like in Malaysia and Bahrain, Mercedes is once again expected to dominate the 5.451 km track this weekend. Which Mercedes driver comes out on top is another question.
But the main point is that Hamilton’s decision to switch from one of the most successful teams in history to a relative newbie has proved correct and he has shown his racing brain.
He has already stated he wants to replicate what Michael Schumacher did with Ferrari. The legendary champion joined the Italian outfit in 1996 and immediately made the competitive car a race winner. Schumacher went on to pocket Ferrari’s first drivers’ title in 21 years in 1999 and what he went on to achieve next is – as they say – history.
The question is, will Hamilton be able to do a Schumacher?
(Sandip Sikdar is an IANS reporter. The views exprressed are personal. He can be contacted atsandip.s@ians.in)