Whitmarsh: Hamilton “is respectful of the team”
Martin Whitmarsh is confident in his team's ability to protect Lewis Hamilton, who is leaving for Mercedes in 2013, as well as in the loyalty that the British driver will show to his long-time team at the end of the 2012 season.
The announcement of Lewis Hamilton’s departure to Mercedes, after six seasons with McLaren in F1, inevitably raises questions about the unique situation of a top team driver, involved in both championships, whose near future is not yet clear with this manufacturer. An unusual scenario in the premier discipline, but in the era of intense media coverage, it is difficult for the parties involved to completely avoid it.
Martin Whitmarsh, the team director, does not overlook the risks of such a situation for L. Hamilton: “Obviously, there will be reasons to be distracted in the coming days and weeks.” The Briton continues, with our colleagues at YallaF1: “We must try to protect him from that. […] We are going to try to put more protections around him and an environment in which he could [focus].”
Voices have been raised in the F1 world, predicting a difficult end to the season for Hamilton, as his departure to Mercedes could potentially deny him access to some crucial developments. A solution that Martin Whitmarsh does not consider: « He assured me he was a McLaren member for the rest of this year and that he would completely focus on winning. […] Lewis is a McLaren driver, he will be involved in the development of the elements we have for this year’s car. He will have every development. »
The fact remains that, heading to the competition, the 2008 world champion will not have access to the first elements of the future McLaren-branded car, reserved for Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez: he will be involved in track development, even if he will clearly not be in the development of next year’s car, M. Whitmarsh logically indicated. This did not stop Lewis Hamilton, at a press conference, from addressing his successor in the seat with a smile: Trust me, it will be a good car next year, I know it. I know exactly what will happen next year with your car.
Although Lewis Hamilton is not familiar with and shouldn’t be familiar with the potential of the future MP4-28, he knows the MP4-27 very well and even wants to deepen his knowledge, according to *The Independent*. According to a team member, whose name is not mentioned, the British driver, since the announcement of his departure, has shown newfound interest in technique and has been very interested in the exhaust system and telemetry. When asked about this, Martin Whitmarsh is not worried: I think that if I were interested in the intellectual property of other teams, I would look more towards the engineers, not the drivers. But I believe that Lewis is respectful of the team and what it does.
