Christian Horner believes McLaren will struggle without Lewis Hamilton – Formula 1 news
Red Bull Racing team principal, Christian Horner thinks that McLaren will struggle in 2013 Formula 1 season, without Lewis Hamilton who is going to leave his team at the end of this year.
Hamilton’s contract with the Woking based team is going expire at the conclusion of this year and he has planned to join Mercedes in the coming season. Moreover, he will replace the record championship holder, Michael Schumacher and will drive as Nico Rosberg’s
teammate from the next season onwards.
On the other hand, the seven-time world champion has said goodbye to F1, nevertheless, he has shown desire to remain in the sport by taking any other role in the Brackley based team.
Even though, the team principal of McLaren, Martin Whitmarsh has expressed full confidence in their next year’s driver line-up which includes Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, who is currently in Sauber.
However, Horner believes that the British squad may become weaker without the presence of the 2008 world champion, who is one of the most competent drivers in the field.
“I think McLaren is a weaker team without Lewis,” Horner said. “I think McLaren would admit that. I think Lewis is an outstanding driver and in Lewis and Jenson they had a hugely strong driver line-up. So whichever team had taken Lewis - whether he stayed
at McLaren or now he's moved to Mercedes - he will be an asset to that team.”
In addition, he said that the 27-year-old will definitely prove out to be a great asset for the Silver Arrows in the coming year and will take them to new heights in the future.
Nonetheless, he said that McLaren had one of the most competitive cars in this season and they will surely try to come up stronger in the coming year. Therefore, he avoided to make any kind of projections about the next season.
“I'm sure he will naturally add performance to Mercedes next year,” he added. “So we'll see next year, but McLaren have had a great car this year and who's to say they won't have an even better one next year?”
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