rumours... Is L.Hamilton leaving McLaren?

[Rocco]

i rear it today in the newspaper.... that´s true?

it seems that he is going to Mercedes....so if that´s true he can start thinking to say bye bye for the next years about disputing the championship

[Colesy]

Just read this too: http://www.sportinglife.com/formula1...-hamilton-exit

Doesn't look good for his championship chances.

[Rusty]

There have been rumours for a while about it but until there's a press release, we'll not know the details. It was reported on the BBC a couple of weeks ago, so I'd ignore them for now, as they seem to report things as fact when they're only in the head of EJ

A change is good but he can't claim that he's doing this for racing reasons - Mercedes have hardly set the track alight. The only positive I can see from this is Ross Brawn; if he can do for Hamilton what he did for Schumacher at Ferrari and build a team around Hamilton, as well as develop a car for 2014, then who knows... only time will tell whether this is a move of greed or genius...

[Jamo]

It's confirmed, however you can only judge it a season at a time because look at red bull one set of rule changes and their cars have gone from top of the tree to middle of the pack.

the key things are McLaren will have to pay for their engines from next year and the new engine rules in 2014 http://www.formula1.com/news/intervi...1/7/12241.html will benefit him as tech will flow down and as Mercs make McLaren engines you can see wo will get the improvements 1st

[Sonic]

Confirmed... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19755236

It's a shame because i'd prefer he stayed at McLaren, but I think they have sealed the deal and let him down this year. He's driven flawlessly and should be winning the championship. The team and car have let him down.

[Colesy]

The team and car have let him down.

They have been terrible, can't really blame them for the mechanical failures as all the teams have been having them (especially Mercedes ironically). But McLaren have been so bad in every other aspect you can't blame him for wanting a change.

Nice insight Jamo, hopefully you'll be proven right.

[Rocco]

Alonso must be laughing now...

Seeing what McLaren and mr Dennis did with him in 2007 in favour to " his" prodigal soon ,and now they are seeing how the soon is paying now

Well deserved btw.

McLaren is always a good bet as every year has the 1,2,3 best cars .not like Mercedes,redbull or Renault

[andyg plym]

i all the above comments and whilst i would never take anything away from him such as his impressive talent one thing mclaren wont be sorry to see the back of is his attitude of late.

look at last season until now,the "tweets",the moans on driver interviews etc

personaly i think lately he has become a liability the way he has been gobbing off,also his management company want him to move so he has a more global marketing appeal.

yet again it would seem to me,money talks not the sport,similar to football.

this is just my opinion,like mentioned perhaps a change would do him good

[s2driveruk]

no love lost between him and Whitmarsh, despite the press statements to the contrary. Great driver when focussed but seems too distracted on and off the track for me these days. A team wins and loses together, feels like he decided to distance himself from the team early and rant on twitter which was a disappointment...kinda changed my perception of him a bit. The team I think are interested in Button and his drive more than Lewis...can see why.

[G60Rallye]

There have been a lot of difficult characters in F1 over the years, but his raw speed cant be over looked. He is about to enter his best years where his experience will make him more of a complete driver like Alonso. I personally think he is the fastest driver out there and mclaren will seriously miss him! If the car isn't perfect Button is poor!

[quattro84]

Good choice to step to the big OEM since the engine change regulations will benefit the Benz engineers i would say from technical point of view.
I must say it does look to me that Mr. Hamilton altered his driving style to a more professional level, and now the McLaren "gründligkeit" seems to let him down when most unconvenient.

[Jamo]

There have been a lot of difficult characters in F1 over the years, but his raw speed cant be over looked. He is about to enter his best years where his experience will make him more of a complete driver like Alonso. I personally think he is the fastest driver out there and mclaren will seriously miss him! If the car isn't perfect Button is poor!

Exactly why I don't rate Button, he won the world title because his car that year was stupidly quicker than any other car.

[Jamo]

BTW I think Perez is a great signing and he would have benefited McLaran as either Buttons or Hamiltons partner there. I think he will do better than a lot of people think