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Lewis Hamilton has achieved legendary status in F1 with Mercedes in recent seasons. A report now, however, claims the Briton came very close to joining Red Bull before ending up at the Silver Arrows.
Hamilton's displeasure with his McLaren car and its myriad of reliability issues in 2012 was an open secret for all connected to F1. The late great Niki Lauda approached the Briton and convinced him to join Mercedes and the rest is history.
Now, Dr. Helmut Marko has said that Red Bull had weighed the option of bringing in Hamilton. They, however, opted against it in what Marko called a 'tactical mistake' during an interview with Motorsport-Total.com. He said:
“Lewis (Hamilton) was really unhappy at McLaren. [...] There was no place available with us. So, I thought it would be better if he went to Mercedes. We gave Niki Lauda massive support in recruiting Lewis. McLaren was our strongest opponent at the time. In retrospect, it would have been much better if he had stayed with McLaren. That’s where you see how tactically you can sometimes be off the mark.”
Hamilton would go on to dominate F1 with Mercedes with the advent of the V6 Turbo-Hybrid era. The 37-year-old has 82 race wins, 133 podiums and six world championships with the team.
Lewis Hamilton has 'done enough' in F1, should make way for younger drivers, claims Jost Capito
Williams CEO Jost Capito believes Lewis Hamilton has 'done enough' in F1 and should step down to make way for the next generation of drivers.
Capito made the comments during an interview with RTL Deutschland when he was asked about the seven-time world champion's future in F1. He said:
“It really doesn’t matter. They always say that there are not enough places for young drivers and then I think if someone has been world champion seven times, he has actually done enough and can make way for a younger driver.”
Hamilton's future has been the subject of perennial speculation ever since he lost the 2021 world title to Max Verstappen at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Reports indicate Hamilton is waiting for the FIA to release the results of their ongoing internal investigation before deciding for sure.
