There have been rumours for some time about the possibility of Lewis Hamilton moving to Red Bull Racing in 2013. At the same time McLaren is continuing to talk to its protege about extending his deal for another four years. Hamilton may not be the best paid driver in Formula 1 but money is not really the issue in these negotiations (although Red Bull has plenty of it). Hamilton wants to be in the best car and be in a position to win every race. It is very clear that for the last two years Red Bull has had the best car. There is little doubt also that the reason for this is that RBR has managed to put together the right technical team, headed by Adrian Newey. One needs only to look at the statistics to understand why Newey is so valuable. He has won Constructors’ World Championships for Williams (1992-1993-1994-1996-1997) and then for McLaren (1998) and last year added Red Bull to his list. Ross Brawn is the only other engineer to have won titles with three teams (Benetton, Ferrari and Brawn GP). While the cars in 2013 will be completely different to the current models, the chances are that a car designed by Newey is going to be competitive, although it is fair to say that McLaren will undoubtedly be in the fight as well. When it comes to calculating the risks, the choice of Red Bull and Newey is probably the better bet given the statistics in recent years. One can imagine that Red Bull would be more than happy to have Hamilton on board not only because he is highly rated but also because of his marketing value to the parent company, which is after all the primary reason that the drinks firm is involved in the sport. From what we hear Hamilton is looking for shorter-term contracts in the future, rather than tying himself to the same team for lengthy periods of time.
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