'It Would Have Been Difficult' For Hamilton To Leave Mercedes If They Were Winning
F1Friday, 09 August 2024 at 22:00
Trackside engineering director at Mercedes, Andrew Shovlin, suggested it would have been much more difficult for Lewis Hamilton to leave if the team was winning Championships.
Lewis Hamilton is currently driving his last season for Mercedes as he will be joining Scuderia Ferrari from 2025 with a multi-year deal at least until 2026.
This move shocked everyone because the seven-time World Champion has been with the German team for an incredibly long period (12th season now in 2024).
No other driver in the history of F1 has been with a single team for as long as the 39-year-old. It seemed like he would drive for Silver Arrows until he decided to retire, but then, he decided to make the surprise switch.
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has known the seven-time World Champion for a long time. When he was asked (during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend) whether he thought Hamilton would still leave if he knew how competitive Mercedes would be in the middle of this season, he said:
"I think if we'd been winning championships, it would have been difficult for Lewis to say no. However, I think his biggest reasons are not necessarily ones of car performance."
Hamilton said it had been his childhood dream to join the team from Maranello and that he felt like now was the right time to do that.
"He clearly wants to have another chapter in his career beyond his very successful one with Mercedes. He's of an age where if he was going to do that, he would need to do it sooner rather than later."
"And as I said, if you know if we were dominating a championship, I suspect it would have been difficult for him to do that."
On the other hand, joining a team that isn't doing best at the moment gives the seven-time World Champion a chance to show that he was one of the main reasons for Mercedes's success and that he can make another team win as well. Shovlin believes the 39-year-old seeks this challenge.
"But I think a big part of Lewis is wanting to have another team and another challenge in his career. I think when someone's decided that they want to do that it can be quite difficult to persuade them otherwise."
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