The complete journey starting in 2006 that led to Lewis Hamilton leaving the Mercedes in 2025 #formula1 #lewishamilton #f1 #mercedes #ferrari Subscribe for more Sources Mercedes Formula 1 Motorsport Racing News 365 Brawn GP
It was highly suspicious for Merc to fall off the way they did in '22 and '23. Terrible car design, terrible race strategy, terrible pitstops with one of the best drivers in history. You almost can't make that up.
@pell0076 Yet they have arguably had the 2nd best car the last two years, so they aren't far off. The last two years need an asterisk because of the cost cap cheating, which most people forget.
I think you nailed it here. I think Merc ignoring Hamilton's teammate preference was frustrating for him too, especially since Red Bull is dedicated to providing Verstappen with a cupcake teammate. It's a huge disadvantage having a competitive teammate when you're trying to win a WDC, especially so in a slower car. It all boils down to the team taking Hamilton for granted, and Merc corporate grossly undervaluing him as a marketing asset.
@@caskraker He was beaten by DannyRic 2 out of 3 years, he's raced against nothing but virgins and a career mid-fielder since. It's easy to look like Jordan when you're playing basketball against a driveway full of 10 year olds.
Hamilton is 37 years old, any team with common logic of course will take a young driver and try to develop and integrate in their future plans. Crying about a teammate is the weak ass argument for someone step off from the team. In the 2021 season, Mercedes basically purges Bottas cars for the sake of Hamilton to get a better chance in that season. I know some LH fans still hurt how Nico beat him in EQUAL cars but hey, LH is one hell of the drivers. The teammate is not the big issue that leads to Hamilton decision 😂
Lewis at every turn trying to prove to Merc that he loved this team st AMG. And st every turn Toto just didn’t fight for Lewis Not in 2021 and not now Signing Toto and giving him that AMG ownership stake seems to me a payoff to just sit quietly while we push Lewis out. Toto is now a billionaire since his signing same year Lewis got the shaft Toto gets that contract extension and they don’t offer Lewis any portion of ownership for being a genius behind the wheel of those 12 cars to give Merc those bragging rights and he gets no real appreciation not even 3% stake in this team for his passion They broke this black man’s heart w their indifference and disregard … Niki Lauda would nog accept MB treating Lewis like this.
Hopefully for Hamilton's sake but Ferrari have been poor for far too long now so I just don't see it. Every other race they seem to be on " plan d" which is never a good sign. Had decent cars over the years but their strategy etc is always a shambles.
Good insight. Of all the videos I've watched that attempt to describe why LH signed with Ferrari, I think yours is closest to the core of the issue. When LH decided to go to Mercedes he did so after being pursued by Niki Lauda and Ross Brawn - "I wasn't convinced necessarily at the beginning. I think the convincing stage which really made me look into it more was when Ross came around my mum's house, and sat with me in the kitchen. We had tea, and he showed me what the plan is for the team. "That was the real in-depth insight into what the team was planning, the changes they were trying to do. That was really the selling point." LH Autosport November 22, 2020. At that time, Mercedes was still a nimble racing team with desire to truly partner with LH to build a Champion. Over time, to your point, they became more 'corporate' in their approach and lost sight of the fact that Lewis was a true partner in building the team. Not taking his technical input in building their challenger in the last two (losing) campaigns and their inability to see the value of LH's brand pretty much sealed the deal. Championship DNA is hard to come by and Ferrari needs a transplant. Fred Vasseur (Like Ross Brawn before him) knows this. As a Mercedes fan (really a 44 fan) I suspect Mercedes will soon be relegated to the 'also-ran' category.
HMMNN YOU just hit the nail on the head here So i believe Ferrari made the same pitch. I believe Lewis has seen Ferrari plans and i think he is knowledgeable enough to know if they are better than Mercedes plans. I strongly believe this plus ofcourse the money meant he just had to leave. Mercedes does not have anything more to offer him really.
They are already in the also ran category, Lewis got them P2 in the championship, Which was more than they should have got. Russell, along with many of the newer drivers just aren't that good, whether it be technical feedback, decision making or personality wise. But this is a new F1 era.
@@stableianF1oracle as someone else said (ex F1 driver) very recently - the car is now 90%...if the car is shit, then even the best driver can't win in it.
@@davepastern To a point then you have the exceptional driver who can make a real difference. Watch Max in 2016 Brazilian GP in pouring rain from 16th to 3rd. The rain is a great leveller. Always has been in MotoGP and F1. Most people don’t know which team Stirling Moss drove for or Jim Clark but we do know they were head and shoulders above the others.
@@stableianF1oracleThe guy you are responding to is more correct. The car behaving correctly is more important. Driver skill can only take a car so far. But if the driver has to spend more time wrestling the car instead of making tactical decisions, he will underperform. Its why Lewis kept blowing away all of his competitors in the past while Max was always having a wrestling match against his own car. Lewis was driving as if his Benz had cruise control activated.
I’m glad too as it means Russell won’t be spending this season or next being told by Toto to let Lewis pass him. Russell can be the racer he is for the first time.
@@stableianF1oraclethey were never close in the races last year, if anything George was the one who’d start moaning about being let by every time he was behind lewis…
@@chiefdenis i agree. Kallenius doesn’t care about anything but profits at this point. It’s a shame that such a motorsport dynasty is being chipped at piece by piece because of corporate greed.
Andy Cowell was the beginning of the end for Mercedes. He was the engine chief. Let’s not Forget Ros Brawn and Norbert Haug started this dynasty. It was a 4 year effort that helped next 6-7 years. Then Aldo Costa and then Dr. Zetsch’s. Slowly everyone started to leave.
To be honest this is FAR better and more considered information than all other so-called experts combined. This explains so much without all the baseless filler that everyone else seem to think they need. You said in a few minutes what hundreds of minutes of other videos couldn't.
Merc treated their biggest financial (advertising and marketing) asset like shit and lost him. Good. I hate how they treated him in 2023 especially. I’m sad but this is a chance for 8th WDC and a resurgence for Ferrari. 💪
Maybe cry a little harder. You hating how he gots treated while he made at least 100 times as much money as you do. Leclerc would also nico rosberg hamilton back in his place. Think mercedes would like to have a better racer who can actually beat verstappen than having a useless marketing asset knowing teams are capped in money anyway and its not like they come short without hamilton... pffff fanboy logic
I agree with some of your analysis but not all. The reason Lewis only got a year guaranteed at Mercedes was not the parent company. It was that the team including Toto wanted the flexibility to put Kimi Antonelli in the seat in 2025. James Vowles confirmed that this week in a lecture to Oxford University students and Toto lost Max to Red Bull by refusing to put Max in F1. Right away and will not let that happen again with Antonelli. Lewis did not get the Mercedes brand ambassadorship because of the resistance to it by the parent company. You are correct that the CEO Mr. Kallenius does not support the company’s involvement in Motorsport and opposed the company’s entry into the last Concorde Agreement. Sad because it was a slap in the face to a driver that did so much to increase the value of the brand. Those two things drove Lewis into the open arms of Ferrari. Frankly he makes a better brand ambassador for Ferrari than Mercedes anyway. All the celebs love Ferrari and buy Ferrari and Lewis is ultra popular with celebs. Lewis is about glamour and fashion as well as fast driving and that fits Ferrari’s image more than Mercedes which is more about buttoned down quiet understated luxury. I think the Lewis move is a win win for all. Mercedes now has a seat for Kimi Antonelli and Lewis fulfills a lifelong dream of racing as a Ferrari driver and representing the brand
Good Job. Just to add Mercedes and Toto gave up on the 2021 robbery of Hamiltons 8th championship appeal. I believe Toto wants to be the head of F1 and didn't want to ruffle feathers because of his personal desire.
Clearly you're passionate about F1 one and I praise your enthusiasm. However, your boy James Allison wanted to design sail boats for INEOS after the masterpiece 2020 W11 was built, so the position on CTO was created to keep him satisfied. The regulation change was supposed to happen in 2021 but because of COVID-19 they were pushed to 2022. However, to spice things up F1 changed the floor edge regulations to pin back Mercedes. Mercedes didn't adjust well to the 2021 changes and waited until the second half of the season to fix its flaws. With the extra year before the aerodynamic change the engineers outsmarted themselves and dropped the ball massively. You are very correct, that the engineers didn't listen to Lewis, after he took it upon himself as the team leader to improve the car at the expense of his own legacy and racing, and people somehow believed that Russell as better driver and was getting preferential treatment from the team. I've been upset since 2021 when Allison was allowed to design boats right before the biggest Aero regulation change in F1 history. Mercedes like McLaren took Lewis for granted and mismanaged things for too many years. The budget cap and egos have led to this outcome.
Yep, then Allison came back and dumped on Lewis complaints of the 22 car. I don’t think he was intentionally malicious but his answer to a question posed about what he thought about Lewis complaining about the side pod did not translate favorably to Lewis.
Mercedes did'nt really fix the issue half way through the season, the solution they found was a way to run the engine at higher level, they used Bottas as the guinea pig. It was just that simple. And they were satisfied taking engine penalties to start at the back when they knew they had a rocket engine. Fucking hilarious. Red Bull definitely had the aero advantage. Merc just had the better engine.
yeah he really didn't. The cost cap meant that James Allison as one of the highest paid staff members at Mercedes had to be moved on. So they moved him & a load of engineers on to the ineos boats bullshit. basically allowing Mercedes to keep the staff incase the people they picked on lower salaries fucked up. The even got rid of some of Lewis's most trusted staff. They let his no1 mechanic go to ferrari, the let Loic serra leave for ferrari who was close to Hamilton. Basically they started forcing the staff close to lewis out
@ckr5694 funny Allison said lewis was wrong about lewis saying the cockpit to far forward was wrong..... and surprise, surprise the W15 has moved the seat postion back. Almost like lewis was right all along.
1:38 you probably it was the first time that two cars had the same MERCEDES power unit, as in 2008 there were various teams sharing the same engine (Ferrari, Honda, Toyota,…)
pretty spot on analysis. I do also think that Lewis waited until he was able to judge the 2023 car developments and W15 late enough in its development to see whether or not he felt Mercedes would improve for 2024. This is why HE negotiated the +1 contract option - so he could get out of Mercedes for 2024 and take up a Ferrari option for 2025/6/7. This has been a tactical masterpiece from Lewis - he's devalued the Mercedes AMG F1 team, the Mercedes brand, made a bucket load of money and probably secured a deal with a team that will unequivocally have a better car in 2024/5/6. Plus, if there has been any hint of a falling out with Toto (or Lewis has felt that Toto no longer values him the same anymore), this financially screws Toto with a team devaluation. It's a big FU to Mercedes.
Lewis main reason for leaving Mercedes is because he felt the engineers weren’t listening to his feedback anymore!! He sacrificed 2022 season trying to help the team recover by agreeing to put sensors all over his car, during practice and races once it became apparent that the car wasn’t fast enough! In 2023 preseason, Lewis was dismayed to discover that most of the feedback he gave the engineers in 2022 season was largely ignored because they felt it would affect Russell driving style. After testing, he said the only positive thing about the 2023 car was that the bouncing had stopped! For the first in his F1 career he started criticising the engineers publicly that he wasn’t been listening to. This led to his mechanics not coming out to support him when he was on the podium in one of the races. This shocked him! Rumour started that he was talking to Ferrari whiles in negotiations with Toto.
I had no idea how deplorable Mercedes is to Sir Lewis. Especially the current CEO. How many Mercedes automobiles have been purchased as a direct result of him. This is my first, and hopefully only time I need to throw the colour card out there. What else could it possibly be? 🤷🏻♂️
If you asked him, im sure he'll just laugh it off and tell you it was business BUT in reality if the man named Lewis Hamilton was a blue eyed, white skinned guy, this would have been handled differently.
Toto's has had 2 horrible years under his stewardship. Crap car zero pod car design, not courting Lando Norris and getting George Russell, years of poor pit crews, and losing Hamilton to Ferrari. His leadership should be more in question.
Very good points. especially if the current CEO isn't investing in F1. that's a sure sign the team will lose top positions in constructor / driver. I would leave to if I was a driver striving to be the best and at the top and began losing resources that help get me to the top. Ferrari has also been that name that stands at the top of F1.
Don’t let Ferrari’s generous offer for you. Ferrari is extremely pragmatic. If Lewis doesn’t perform, they will dump him like they did Kimi, Sebastian and Carlos Sainz Jr.
Great video, felt pretty unbiased and informative! One thought I have is that Fred Vasseur is probably the best thing that has happened to Ferrari in a while. I heard that he's pursing Newey aswell so we might see a return to glory for Ferrari and a less depressed Tifosi. Just sad that Sainz had to be axed but I'm sure he'll find a seat
Good Job on this video, everything you said makes sense. I am a real estate guy but been a F1 fan since I was a kid. Maybe we can do a podcast swap one day. Cheers!
The moment Toto decided to ignore the teams advice & recruited the team's Albatross ( GR), he made a major 'Budweiser' type management mistake. Over the last two years, as a result of the teams 'Albatross' recruitment, the team unity has been destroyed, resulting in the team hemorrhaging their best engineering minds & now LH. Toto can unite & resurrect the Mercedes team competitiveness by dumping the teams 'Albatross' (GR). asap ..... or sell the team to someone has an interest in restoring the Mercedes pride & reputation.
I agree with you 💯 should’ve never got rid of Valtteri Bottas he had a lot more experience than George Russell. Toto got complacent with the team success. One of the biggest things that stuck in my throat was when some of the Sky pundits, and we all know who they are! Kept asking him when are you going to sign George Russell, simply because Russell was English. George Russell is not ready to lead that team. The facts speaks for themselves.
@@RebelRanger2009 In historic terms, early mariners firmly believed that sighting an Albatross is one of the worst omens possible as it signaled extreme bad luck....... Just like Mercedes has been experiencing since GR joined the team. As for the 'Golf' reference, we have never heard of an Albatross reference being used in that way.
@@RebelRanger2009 Just checked your reference on google and was surprised to see game of 'Golf' uses that term as you described. Thanks for the interesting fact clarification.
take out: NEVER EVER employ a person who LACKS PASSION for the work you do... ...Employ only a person who is passionate for what you guys are doing in that company. You'll drown like Mercedes Benz.
Great facts in analysis. Much appreciated. I figured part of it was due to them not listening to his input on car improvement but I knew they had to be something more to it than just that.
He supports his team fully and stay for yeats to wait their approvement, sacrificing previous time while waiting....so what you say is not that accurate
I getting vibes that Ferrari wouldnt be able to cope with 44s budget requirements the money would probably dry up really fast especially since Ferrari is now listed on the stock exchange... That's worst way to end his career and legacy...
Thank you for this, personally I thought he was just being greedy after they invested and took a risk on him earlier on. At least that is what it was made to appear. Kodwa the change of guard from Mercedes makes sense. Makes the wonder why didn't Jim Ratcliffe use the Mercedes Benz engine on his Ineos Grenadier yes the factory is in France where Mercedes was but still
Lewis Hamilton has as many followers as the next three F1 drivers combined together on instagram alone. As good as Max is, he is nowhere as big of a marketing machine/brand as LH. Mercedes really fumbled the bag with this one and Ferrari got themselves a legend on par if not better than Michael Schumacher who started this Mercedes team.
@@ciao0301 Still he would do better than diva Hamilton with less as he has proven this before. Mercedes might as well take Rosberg since he beat Hamilton. Mercedes before had a car with a superior engine which was miles ahead. When the cars are close Verstappen is good enough to put Hamilton in place regarding race skill. Why would Mercedes even think they need Hamilton knowing their superior engine is what gave him so many championships. History has proven Hamilton needed this engine more than Mercedes needed him regarding performance. Lulu is a good driver but not on the same level as a Senna, Schumacher, Verstappen etc. Every other good driver would have reached the same amount of championships in that car.
That's quite an interesting perspective and one that I haven't heard anywhere else in F1 circles. I haven't done my own research as to why Lewis made that decision, but a few things have been clear since the last couple of seasons. Lewis has repeatedly alluded to the team not trusting his judgement regarding the car's development. That's not so surprising considering many still view him, even within the Mercedes camp, as the talented 7x champion who is technically illiterate. I also believe James Allison's departure dealt a swift blow to the team, one they haven't quite recovered from.
If you get the wrong person at the top to run the company it’s like lightning fast to screw it all up. I mean look at the overall reliability score of Mercedes-Benz. It’s all down in the stinkin’ mud!! It’s a big SHAME for the most prestigious vehicle maker to become this way.
Lewis was not valued for his dedication to Mercedes, they showed no gratitude to Lewis in no way worst they refused to pay him the money he deserved and listening to him as other teams treated their star drivers.
Lewis is tied with Schumacher with 7 titles apiece . Get your facts straight In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Michael Schumacher), and holds the records for the most wins (103), pole positions (104), and podium finishes (197), among others. Anything else?!
You are correct in that Mercedes pushed Lewis out the door. They pretty much had to. Despite Lewis’s past accolades, he is at the end of his driving career. I’m not sure there is an upside to Ferrari in hiring him, if winning is their goal. At this stage, LeClerc is a better, née younger option. So Lewis, will be #2 at Ferrari, and ambassador status aside, is this how he wants to finish his career?
@@thomaslynch9016 DUDE, what are you talking about. Who do you think is going to stay and who is going to be let go at Ferrari? It will noty be LeClerc and that puts Hamilton at number 2.
Figure it out. Lewis is now the elder statesman of F1 drivers. You do not become .#1 at his age. He is basically a figure head at this point. Let’s talk half way through 2025 when he is basically a rolling chicane.
Lewis , personal issues considered, is an aspirational ikon for youngsters wanting to progress in any motorsport field. Ferrari was probably always his dream and so here we go. Let’s hope it isn’t a disappointment for him……AND us!!!
That's the only thing that's terrible about formula. One racing like you said, Hamilton was trying to tell Mercedes what to do with the car and they would not listen to him. And that's because Formula 1 racing is all about the people who put the money into racing. It's not about the drivers, it's about the car. It's about the sponsors
@@eliasbergsteigerausschwarz3654 Apparently we were wrong as Google agrees with you. LH is a very lucky man to be given a lucrative contract like that as he is definitely not worth it.
Fun fact…Ferrari’s stock share skyrocketed when Lewis announced his move…and that total stock price increase is literally the same or more than what they offered Lewis so technically, they haven’t lost much signing Lewis
You forget to mention it was the fanbase of Lewis that threatened Mike Elliott. And then Lewis wanted a hight payed "ambassador" role... wtf is that? What would he be doing for all that money? And Mercedes didn't listen to his technical input? Is he an engineer? Do you think Ferrari is going to listen if his needs differ a lot from the needs of Leclerc? I think Lewis just wants a lot of money. And he wants that money to continue after he quits F1 with this " ambassador" role. A role that allows him to visit races for free and gets him money for hardly doing anything.
And what confuse me is this new CEO wasn’t he the guy that was head of AMG ? How was he head of AMG and not into Motorsports at all that makes no sense to me what so ever.
Re the car comments, yes it was good and perhaps Lewis had a large part to play in that. RB had Adrian Newley to thank for its dominance and (though I hate to admit it) a young fiery driver. Remember verstappens early record of regularly stuffing his car.
New comer here ❤ will you be following SLH when he joins Ferrari for your main channel content or continue to report mainly Merc race content or even better report on both teams to add spice to the big question that's looming and that's 'will SLH regret making the switch'?
