@mariohomoh wrote:
As I said yesterday, I believe it's indeed a bucket list thing from Lewis. It's his send-off.
If he wanted a 8th world title that bad, seems to be the logical decision would be staying at Mercedes. Money would hardly be a problem, the team revolves around him, George barks but can't bite hard enough to pose a threat and I believe Merc has greater potential to get their act together to fight for wins in the short run than Ferrari.
There's the rumour that a key Mercedes engineer that Hamilton really liked and that had a similar take on the car's concept was hired by Ferrari. It would definitely not be the first time a driver follows an engineer or vice versa, but that still does not fit the bill to me.
That said, I thoroughly love Charles. I used to rank him as high as Max performance and potential wise until Verstappen got his first championship and seemed to leapfrog ahead in maturity and racecraft. And undoubtedly Charles has a big heart. But I think he has as much of a chance of acting up like a diva in a team rivalry as Lewis has.
The signing makes sense if we assume that Lewis wants it as a send-off to cap his F1 career, that Carlos either had his eyes in a fat paycheck and the prospect of having a team revolving around him in Audi as rumours (and Carlos Sr) suggest, and that Ferrari would love a market cap bump.
I'm also going to throw in the fact that sponsorship and marketing was a push for Ferrari to get Hamilton. Let's be real, others may say otherwise but Hamilton is probably the most recognisable face of F1. He has done far more to promote the sport (some intentional, some not so intentional) than most drivers on the track. It's a huge boon having Hamilton driver your car and Ferrari saw their share prices take a massive increase yesterday.
Even though Sainz is a smooth operator, I doubt that he has the same sponsorship and merchandise draw that could get to the levels of Hamilton. Money is also key, so a driver of Hamilton's calibre, even though it may be waning, in a top car he's likely to produce similar or better results than Sainz. So why not have similar results and then have the extra money and advertising that comes with it. It's a win for Ferrari, a loss for Sainz personally I don't feel that Sainz is a world champion in the making.
