When Lewis Hamilton decided to switch from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013, he faced a lot of criticism about the move. While McLaren was a championship contender back then, the Brackley team had just begun its fresh stint in F1 and were struggling. Still, all these years later, Hamilton has had the last laugh after going on a juggernaut of success with Mercedes.
The Briton reflected on his decision to join the Silver Arrows on the Performance People podcast and recalled how the critics were proven wrong. He said, “As a world champion, I think people were like ‘This is the worst decision you can make’, ‘This is not a great team’, and ‘Your career’s over’.”
“So all the pundits, all the media outlets, all the fans everyone was like, ‘Oh career’s over’. And then it went well and everyone’s like, ‘It’s the best decision I’ve ever made'”, he added.
Mercedes bought the Brawn GP team in 2010 and were struggling to even score consistent points for the first two seasons. While they got their first race win in 2012, Hamilton knew that they were the fifth or sixth-best team on overall performance.
However, as Niki Lauda pitched him about the future championship potential of Mercedes, he agreed to take the calculated risk of moving away from McLaren. It was a watershed moment in his career which later earned him six of his seven world championships.
Hamilton also reflected upon what his mindset was while taking this bold decision to leave a championship-winning outfit to a novice midfield team.
Hamilton wanted a new challenge in 2012-13
The British driver had been having a roller coaster of a time at McLaren after his maiden championship-winning season in 2008. The Woking outfit had several operational issues and Hamilton was feeling frustrated about not winning a championship for four seasons.
He stated on the podcast that he wanted a new challenge and thus he took the risk of moving to Mercedes. The 39-year-old said, “I wanted a challenge at the time. And I love taking risks, I always have and also I never like doing the same thing everyone firstly expects of me.”
Cut to 2024, and Hamilton has taken a similar decision to move to Ferrari, ending his 12-year-long association with Mercedes. The seven-time champion has a similar motivation to undertake a new challenge at the Italian outfit and chase his elusive eighth world championship.
BREAKING: Lewis Hamilton to join Ferrari in 2025!#F1 @LewisHamilton @ScuderiaFerrari pic.twitter.com/M5QrB5pM8G
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 1, 2024
However, Hamilton is facing similar questions from the media and pundits about the performance gap between Mercedes and Ferrari. While the Scuderia had started the 2024 season on a winning note, they have fallen back on performance while the Silver Arrows have mounted a remarkable recovery and also won three of the last five races.
Although, Hamilton is certain that his decision to bet on Ferrari’s potential will turn out to be correct.
