Martin Whitmarsh asserts McLaren went a long way to keep Lewis Hamilton – Formula 1 news
McLaren team principal, Martin Whitmarsh has said that they have gone a long way to keep their driver, Lewis Hamilton in the team for 2013 which didn’t prove out to be fruitful in the end.
Hamilton’s deal with the Woking based team will be ended at the conclusion of this season and he has recently confirmed that he is not going to renew his contract with his current team because he has joined Mercedes as the replacement of Michael Schumacher
for the coming year.
Whitmarsh has asserted that they have been trying their best to keep the British driver in the team and they had even raised their offer so as to counter with the deal of the Brackley based team.
However, he said that the negotiations with Hamilton’s management company, XIX Entertainment didn’t prove out to be fruitful. Therefore, they have now signed a new agreement with Sergio Perez of Sauber who will join as Jenson Button’s teammate in the next
year.
“If the question is 'do we blame XIX' we don't,” Whitmarsh told Sky Sports News. “The fact is Lewis is great racing driver, he's got to make decisions in his life. So we had lots of discussions with XIX, we went in to lots of details, we drew up
very complex contracts, we negotiated lots of detail, lots of freedom within those and it was very commercial offer that we made.”
“We went a long way to make a good offer to Lewis. But ultimately it takes two to get a signature. We clearly didn't agree terms and we've moved in different direction,” he added.
On the other hand, the 2008 world champion has said that he is very excited about his move to the Silver Arrows and is looking forward to the new challenge. Furthermore, he said that Mercedes have a long history in the sport and he is very happy to become
a part of such a legendary team.
Conversely, Whitmarsh believes that the British squad was the best place for the 27-year-old to claim victories. In addition, he said that he sees great potential in their next year’s driver-up as Button and Perez, both have got the potential to win championship
titles.
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