In an obvious bid to produce some stir and publicity ahead of the launch of McLaren’s 2018 car, the MCL33 – Zak Brown has publicly expressed interest in Lewis Hamilton driving for the team.
“I don’t think there’s a team in the pit-lane that wouldn’t be interested in having Lewis drive for them, us included,” Brown said.
“If anyone got Lewis, it would be great for the team.
“He has a great history here and he is very friendly with the shareholders.” confirmed Brown.
Alonso and Hamilton have had ‘significant’ history as team mates in the past. The then rookie Hamilton joined the 2005 and 2006 world champion Alonso back in 2007 at McLaren. Between them, they promptly stalled McLaren’s chances of a drivers title gifting it to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. With Hamilton’s Mercedes contract expiring at the end of the season, perhaps Brown is cashing in on rumour and no doubt Eddie Jordan to cause a stir.
Yesterday Alonso told the Spanish press his thoughts on such a move.
“Right now, yes [that would be incredible],”
“Because he won last year, but two years ago it could have been Rosberg, who ended as champion.
“And a few years ago, someone else. I don’t know.”
Should such an unlikely move occur, chances are Alonso would’ve long left Formula 1, pursuing his wins at Le Mans and the Indy 500.
Amazon – Minichamps McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 1st Win Canada GP 2007 – Lewis Hamilton 1/43 Scale Die-Cast Model
Why the hell would Hamilton want this? You might as well ask Bottas whether he would like to discontinue his Mercedes contract just to return to Williams. Brown’s kind of cheap publicity doesn’t gain my favor. This only wants me to see the Torro’s lead McLaren in the championship even more.
McLaren has had multiple bad seasons in a row. They have a single chance to return to the top. If they don’t make it chances are they have to follow Williams’ route of “old glory”.
I agree. I see McLaren doing no better than 5th this year in the constructors WC and if TR, Williams and Renault get it right, they could be 7th or 8th. Nor do I see them winning or even getting a podium this year. The loss of $100M from Honda is going to have a large impact of their in-season development. As far as I see things – McLaren is a trophy company for the owners, run by a BS artist. I don’t see any light at the end of he tunnel for them in their current configuration.
While I’d agree that this is a critical point in McLarens history, as failure to perform could easily see them slide into permanent mediocrity, I have to say I fully expect McLaren to reach the podium this year. Not to say competing for wins (that is very much wishful thinking), but they should be in the hunt for a few podiums.
Anything less than fourth overall with the resources they have now would have to be regarded as a massive disappointment – Renault are still building, FI will also suffer from a lack of development over the course of the season, Williams will be likely inconsistent (inexperience on the driver front), Toro Rosso are bound to have initial trouble with Honda, who can’t realistically be expected to come good immediately, and Haas are also still learning.
But if we knew 100% what would happen we’d never watch would we 🙂
Teams typically, especially since the introduction of essentially spec engines, don’t do well the first year of a new engine introduction, look at Williams. McLaren are effectively low man on the engine totem pole,after Renault themselves and Red Bull. And F1 and Williams have the M-B engine which is more powerful and reliable than Renault. We shall see – but the realist in me thinks that McLaren will be competing against Renault and TR and not F1 or Ferrari / M-B / Red Bull
Williams did pretty well in their first year with M-B to be fair!
Yup, the M-B engine is better than the Renault, but Williams will not likely score consistently so I think they will not be in the fight for fourth..while I think Sirotkin is much better than his press, he is still a rookie, and with him and Stroll it’s likely to be a hit or miss season for Williams, and for the small(er) teams, consistency is needed to be there when the big points become available.
Renault and Force India will surely provide more competition, but I do believe McLaren have the resources now to do it (and agree that if they don’t, those resources won’t last ).
Might all just be wishful thinking on my part though, would hate to see McLaren go the way of Lotus.
I was referring to switching engines manufacturers during during a spec cycle – not when a new spec was introduced.
Question: Are they raising false hopes, or raising hopes falsely?
A post worthy of a real cunning linguist.
Pingback: Lewis Hamilton salary: Wolff failed attempt to get Max & Seb backfired·