LEWIS HAMILTON - MR P15?

P15 y'all. Better get used to it.

P15??!! WTF?? Yeah, I know what you mean. For all those who are not aware yet, I am a Lewis Hamilton supporter. Not a die hard (maybe Bruce Willis) supporter as sometimes he does wrong (he's only human) and I give him his due shit. I met him in 2007 when he was in Sepang, Malaysia for his second race of his F1 career. I got to know his dad, Anthony well. We had "roti canai" on the streets of Malaysia and I drove them around, well mostly Anthony.

So of course I had an interest in his career from the start. The fact that he is a damn fierce racer who throws the car around corners is also the reason why I'm a fan. So yes, I'm surprised as well to see him finish P15. Well, not really. It happens quite a few times with McLaren reliability lately. And with Mercedes, P15 could be his new jam studio.

This is what we F1 fans would know and probably accept. Except some of those zombie die hard supporters out there. Yes you know who you are. Please tone down a bit. Lewis is human after all, he makes mistakes. Lets not turn him into a god and associate the real Creator of the heavens and the earth with anything else. It would be extremely "hot" for you. And that's an understatement.

So what's up with Lewis finishing in P15? Seems he has really planned his move to Mercedes knowing full well all the trappings. In an interview recently, he laid bare his thoughts and they are certainly very interesting.

His first taste of Mercedes vs McLaren machinery, he was pretty frank:

“The McLaren was better, but that’s not a surprise. I could see last year that the Mercedes was often a second off the best; sometimes two seconds. I was prepared for that. I could tell (in Jerez test) that the Mercedes had less downforce than the McLaren. But it’s not catastrophic. I’ve got ideas on how we can improve two or three things."

Of course the McLaren was better, it was the fastest car at the end of last season. But it tended to breakdown quite often, which is not good if you want to win races. Not good for P15 either.

His thoughts on Niki Lauda, his part in getting Hamilton to Mercedes and the wider role at Mercedes:

“I’ve always respected him, but in the last few years he used to criticize me without even knowing me. When we met I wanted us to spend time together in order for him to understand who I was. And on my side, I wanted to know if I was going to like his character. At the end of the day, we have a lot in common. We spoke at length about things with passion and that contributed to my decision (to join Mercedes).”

Not so obvious man!

So the old man did really influence him then. They say wisdom comes with age and so does senility. Lets hope the old geezer still has some tricks up that short sleeve of his. But the most important reasoning, explanation or feeling from his heart and which all his fans would really like to know about is why he left McLaren. Why he had to leave.

“Definitely things weren’t as good as they had been at McLaren; I was driving a competitive car, I could win races, battle with Sebastian Vettel.. But I perhaps stayed there too long. I need new challenges. I can’t stay for 25 years in the same office, doing the same things. And McLaren had become a bit like an office for me; the routine, the same gym, the same factory in which I knew what was in every single corner.”

At the end of the day he is just humans, like the rest of us. Well maybe he is worlds away from us when it comes to fitness, hand-eye coordination and fearlessness of speed but still human. We all need change once in a while. We all need to keep moving, to better ourselves.

I have been prepared to see Lewis start races in the 3rd or 4th rows or even farther back and finish races P10 or even P15. This year is the base building for 2014. I maintain that he made the move to prepare for 2014, where he will get the best chance to win the championship. And with a stable base, mount a string of championship runs.

Go Lewis!!

The interview that Lewis gave was originally posted on L’Equipe but I have not been able to find it and I don't speak french so the L’Equipe website was just mumbo-jumbo to me. The best source of it can be found on James Allen's blog here.

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