In late September, the former world champion Lewis Hamiltonsurprised the world of Formula One when he announced that he would leave hisMcLaren team and join the Mercedes team on a three-year contract. The Britishdriver had been associated with McLaren since he signed to its young driversupport program at age 13, and he has been racing with the team in Formula Onefor six seasons. Hamilton was severing a special relationship with McLaren,which he has described as his family.
Although the 24 Formula One drivers seek job security likeany other company employee, it is likely that none envision staying with thesame team throughout their career. In fact, few with long careers have done so.
“I have said that it would be cool to see your career out inone place,” Hamilton said. “It would be cool to do something that no one elsehas done before.”
But he then spoke of the real reason he was moving, he said“From my past experiences of driving Formula 3 in different teams, the amountof experience that you get from joining other people, learning to work withthose new people as quickly as possible, extracting the most from them and viceversa it’s such a challenge,” he said. “And you have to do that to grow; youcan’t do it in one place. I think even now, as I am in Formula One and have wona world championship, I think there’s still so much to learn, there’s so muchgrowing to do. So I think this is part of that growing process.”
Many drivers agreed that changing teams was about theopportunity for growth and new challenges. A look at the career path of thedriver whom Hamilton will replace at Mercedes helps explain why Formula Onedrivers often choose to move.
That driver is Michael Schumacher, the most successfuldriver in the history of the series. Schumacher, 43, will retire for a secondtime at the end of the season after a three-year return to the sport.Schumacher did it for the challenge, but there was another aspect to it, whichis also key to the driver mentality.
“The ideal is that a driver wants to build his team aroundhim,” said the retired French driver Jean Alesi, whom Schumacher replaced atFerrari.
Many drivers are guarded about the subject of moving fromteam to team, for fear of looking as if they are seeking better employmentelsewhere. But Pedro de la Rosa, who has driven and test driven at many teams,including McLaren, and who now drives “ at age 41 “ at the HRT team, said thatit was indeed all part of the process that a driver uses to improve himself.
For most drivers, however, the issue of staying or leavingis simple, as noted by Jean-Eric Vergne, a rookie at Toro Rosso: “The onlything that will influence my decisions is that I just want to go to a teamwhere I can become world champion.”
