Quote:
Originally Posted by Double_Rs
I agree, Alonso was very successful last season, despite the cons of his car. I think he will be a major contendor for Vettel. If you watch BBC's TOP GEAR, season 19 episode 4 I think, Hamilton went on the show again, and during the interview he explained the switch to Mercedes. He pretty much wants to bring his experience and talent to a team that can use it more than McLaren. I honestly think he was just fed up with all of the mistakes the team made during last season, which arguably is the one reason he lost important points in some races.
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I've heard Hamilton's reasons for leaving. I might even agree with him a bit on the idea of wanting a new challenge. But he does come off as a bit disingenuous about the whole thing... if he had just won 3 driver's championships in a row, I might believe the whole "new challenge" thing a bit more. The reality is that he seems like he's not happy with the team, and instead of working at improving the relationship there like a pro, he's just jumping ship.
My bet is that once he's in an uncompetitive car, and realizes that the reason Mercedes isn't improving isn't for a lack of a driver developing the chassis (they had fucking Schumacher for christsake!), it's because the engineering talent and budget at Mercedes doesn't match Red Bull, McLaren, or Ferrari, Hamilton is going to be kicking himself. If he thinks he's frustrated now with McLaren over personnel issues, just wait until his car is slower than everyone else and no amount of bad-ass driving is going to drop his lap times. I think that Hamilton's biggest weakness is his ability to communicate with the team when he's frustrated, and that's basically *the only thing* that a driver who's developing a chassis is required to do.
I fully expect to see Hamilton have a meltdown at some point in the season due to frustration over lack of pace in the car. Like throwing it off the track at trying to get into Q3 and then getting out and spiking the steering wheel on the tarmac before wandering off to go hang out with Kimi on Kimi's boat.
