final drive - Mundo Motorizado

Hamilton joins Rosberg, will
he also join the midfielders?
and rumours are rife that McLaren
technical director Paddy Lowe is being
lined up to replace Brawn. Whatever
the hiring and firing strategy at
Merc, Hamilton is relaxed about the
situation and doesn’t feel as though
he’s walking into a team in turmoil.
“I’ve been assured by Ross that his
commitment is for the long term and
he is here to try to win with me, which
reassures me and continues to give me
a positive feeling,” counters Hamilton.
“There are lots of good people here and
I believe in all the people in this team.
There is a great spirit here. The guys
seem hungrier than any group of people
I’ve seen before. Every year there was
always a great atmosphere at McLaren,
but this is a different environment to
come to and a different feeling because
it’s new and fresh. But the guys seem
to be just as one [as the guys at
McLaren], if not more.
“It’s important that they’re always
analysing and seeing what can be
improved and what adjustments need
to be made. That’s a big positive for
me – to see that they’re not scared of
making changes and doing whatever
they have to do to win.”
Triple world champion Jackie
Stewart said at AUTOSPORT
International earlier this year that
Hamilton was taking a risk by joining
an underperforming manufacturer
team that could pull out of the sport
at any moment if better results are not
forthcoming. But Hamilton appears
relaxed about the challenges he faces.
While it’s true that Jenson Button
narrowly outscored him during their
three seasons together at McLaren,
Hamilton’s personal form during the
latter part of last year was sublime,
and only some unfortunate operational
and reliability issues at Woking
prevented him from maintaining a title
challenge. And few would predict he’ll
struggle to get on top of Mercedes
incumbent Nico Rosberg – a very
capable driver, but one who is yet
to convince the world that he’s an
absolute top-line driver.
So in theory, the way is clear
for Hamilton to mould this team
around his own will, conducting its
competitive energies in a way that
might return the glories of the 1950s
to the Silver Arrows (if the car is
good enough) and elevate Hamilton’s
own standing to that of a true
grand prix legend. Whatever the
obstacles to that ambition in the
short term, you know he will back
the depth of his own driving talent
to pull the team through.
“I’ll be flat-out all the way and
working as hard as I can to drive the
team to success,” he says. “It’s not a
one-man band, it’s a team effort, and
while they’re putting in 100 per cent
I’ll be doing exactly the same.”
For Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes,
now is the time to show the world
what they’re really made of.
Feature interview
Feature lewis hamilton
Why LeWis needs to unLeash his inner ChurChiLL
AUTOSPORT’s resident mind coach, Don Macpherson, analyses Hamilton’s switch to Mercedes and asks how he’s going to cope mentally with what’s ahead
Lewis Hamilton did a good job in 2012:
I place him second, behind Fernando
Alonso and ahead of Sebastian Vettel,
in my mind-management league.
But he faces very diferent mental
challenges this year. The question is,
does he have the tools to deal with
them, or will there be more ‘WTF’
tweets? Maybe Nicole Scherzinger or
Ross Brawn should confiscate his
phone over race weekends…
He often likes to tweet inspirational
quotes, such as “The time is always
right to do what is right” – Martin
Luther King. Pity he didn’t check this
one out: “A lie gets halfway around the
world, before the truth gets a chance to
put its pants on” – Winston Churchill.
His over-the-top reaction last
year to thinking Jenson Button had
‘unfollowed’ him, and was therefore
disrespectful, played right into the
hands of his twitter ‘haters’, and
showed a rather worrying mental
immaturity. It turned out to be
complete rubbish, as most of the time
the only thing Jenson was following
was the back of Lewis’s car!
The well-documented twitter drama
at Spa showed he was so desperate to
explain his poor qualifying to his
adoring followers that he was even
prepared to give his own team’s
secrets away. Not the actions of
a balanced mind.
Can he stay calm when McLaren
launches its new car, and still remain
positive that he has made a good
decision? An even bigger mental
challenge will come at the first test,
especially if his new Mercedes is of
the McLaren’s pace. But the biggest
mental test will come if he is overtaken
(or lapped?) by Perez in ‘his’ car.
Then there’s the usual challenge of
being quicker than his team-mate. I
think he knows he’s got that covered.
Nico Rosberg is not mentally weak,
but Hamilton is stronger.
His real challenge is to match what
Alonso and Vettel are doing now:
build the team around you, be the
team leader. Maybe he should read
more of Churchill’s quotes – Winston
knew how to win a war.
www.donmacpherson.co.uk
January 31 2013 autosport.com 27