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Mar
13th

F1: Bernie Ecclestone told Mercedes to sign Lewis Hamilton

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From GMM

Bernie Ecclestone has admitted he advised Mercedes to lure Lewis Hamilton from McLaren.

Many were surprised when Lewis Hamilton decided to leave established top team McLaren for 2013 and beyond, but it now emerges that Paddy Lowe is set to follow suit.

"I told Mercedes, 'If you get Lewis, you'll get all the right kind of people for the future'," Ecclestone said in an interview with Bild newspaper. "They'll now get people who believe they are working on a winning team."

F1 Mercedes AMG W04 Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W04. (Photo: Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

The downside, for McLaren, is having lost two of the most highly-rated figures - 2008 world champion Hamilton and technical boss Lowe - in the paddock.

"McLaren is not as strong now," agreed ex-McLaren driver Gerhard Berger, in a pre-season interview with Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper. "Sergio Perez is not going to put Jenson Button under the same kind of pressure (as Hamilton did)."

And former Renault boss Flavio Briatore told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "McLaren without Hamilton is a lot weaker."


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