Lewis Hamilton Reflects On Biggest Career Gamble That ruined him

Lewis Hamilton recently reflected on his bold decision to switch from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013. At the time, many doubted the move, fearing it could spell the end of his career. Now, with seven world championship titles to his name, Hamilton looks back on that choice as a defining moment, driven by his intuition, that ultimately paved the way for his remarkable success with Mercedes.

The seven-time world champion secured his first world title in 2008 with McLaren, the team where he started his F1 career and which was among the fastest on the grid. However, four years later, he moved to Mercedes, a team that had been largely mid-field and had achieved only one race win in the previous three seasons.

The decision saw the world criticize Hamilton, with many critics labeling it a career gamble. Eventually, though, Hamilton’s gut feeling proved correct, leading him to secure a total of seven world championship titles by 2020, matching the record set by Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher.

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In a recent interview on the Performance People podcast, Hamilton looked back at his career-defining moment when he made the bold decision to leave McLaren for Mercedes. He said:

“It will probably have been when I decided to join Mercedes.

“I was in Thailand at the time, in between races after Singapore, and that’s when I made the decision.

“And I was like: ‘I want to take the leap of faith and I’m going to go with it, regardless of what people say.’

“Pretty much everyone told me to stay, but I went with my gut and my intuition and it was the best thing for me.

“I was with a championship-winning team. I was with McLaren, which had such a great history.

“Obviously Mercedes used to own half of McLaren, and so it was partly their team, but then they broke away and bought their own team and as they were trying to ramp up, they weren’t having a lot of success.

“I think they were the fifth or sixth-best team at the time, so they were often finishing out of the top 10, struggling to get into the top 10.