Home

F1

“It Wasn’t in Singapore”- Lewis Hamilton Reveals How Lauda and Brawn Actually Sold Him the Mercedes Dream

Published 11/13/2020, 2:15 AM EST

Follow Us

via Reuters

Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of equaling the legendary Michael Schumacher’s record of 7 World Championship titles. It is quite obvious that his present glory days started in 2013 when he stepped into the Mercedes AMG F1 team.

It was also known that Niki Lauda and Ross Brawn played a huge role in bringing the Briton into the team. But the question is, was it actually the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix where the Austrian convinced Lewis into joining Mercedes? Well, apparently it was not.

During the Turkey press conference, Lewis revealed the truth of how and when Niki sold him to the Silver Arrows. “It wasn’t in Singapore that Niki sold me a dream,” he said. “I had spoken to Niki. I was back in Monaco.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

I’m pretty sure he [Niki] was the first one I spoke to, and he said, ‘you gotta come to the team’ and I wasn’t too convinced,” Lewis said.

This is where Ross Brawn stepped into the talks with Lewis. Seemingly, Brawn decided to go in-depth with the then-McLaren driver about the team’s future plans in the hope that he would be satisfied in joining Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton reveals the conversation with Ross was the “selling point

The 35-year-old revealed that the “in-depth” conversation he had with Ross Brawn turned out to be an eye-opener as it helped him choose Mercedes over other teams.

I think the convincing stage which made me look into it more was when Ross came around my mom’s house as sat with me in the kitchen and we had tea and showed what the plan is for the team,” Lewis said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest F1 stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

That was the real in-depth insight to what the team was planning, the changes they were trying to do. That was really the selling point.”

via Imago

From there, as everyone knows, Lewis’ fortunes changed entirely to his favor as he managed to secure 5 World Championship titles in the following 7 years he spent with the team.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Now, in his 8th season with Mercedes, the Briton has dominated the entire grid to an extent where the question was never about whether he will lift the trophy or not. It was more about how early he could manage to do it.

Hence, will Lewis end his championship fight with his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, by the end of this weekend, or will he extend his battle into the next race weekend which is set to take place in Bahrain?

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Rohit Kumar

1,915Articles

One take at a time

Rohit Kumar is an F1 author at EssentiallySports. He has been an ardent follower of the racing series since 2007, with his love for the sport coinciding with his love for Kimi Raikkonen. He is also an ardent follower of Sebastian Vettel and Aston Martin Racing.
Show More>