Hamilton replaces Schumacher at Mercedes in 2013

Mercedes team principal has actively pursued Lewis Hamilton to sign with the team, and today the deal was sealed. The 2008 FIA Formula One world champion will leave McLaren in at the end of this season. His new teammate starting in 2013 will be Nico Rosberg, who remains with the Silver Arrows team.
"It is now time for me to take on a fresh challenge and I am very excited to begin a new chapter," said the Briton in this morning’s announcement.

Together, we can grow and rise to this new challenge.

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton, now 27, joined the McLaren organization when he was 13 years old, and has been a front runner with the British-based team. Now he will take on a new challenge with a three year contract with Mercedes.
Team principal Ross Brawn commented, "I believe that the combination of Lewis and Nico will be the most dynamic and exciting pairing on the grid next year and I am looking forward to what we can achieve together.”
Hamilton has not had one of his best years, and obvious has been disappointed in the mistakes made by his current team, which cost him podium finishes and more importantly victories. Not all were errors by the team; some were mechanical issues but still he pushed to the limits at each event, and will continue to do so for the remaining races.
Added Hamilton, "Together, we can grow and rise to this new challenge. I believe that I can help steer the Silver Arrows to the top and achieve our joint ambitions of winning the world championships."
No word on the exact contract details, but current reports claim the Hamilton took a cut in pay; however the sponsor package is very sweet; along with incentives.
Norbert Haug, Vice President - Mercedes-Benz Motorsport commented, "Mercedes-Benz has supported Lewis throughout his career, from karting, to Formula 3, to our successful partnership with McLaren, and it will be a very nice moment for all of us in the team to see him at the wheel of a works Silver Arrow next season, following in the tradition of British Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix drivers Sir Stirling Moss and Richard Seaman.”
The future for Michael Schumacher was not mentioned. Yesterday, Brawn claimed that "Michael has been a huge asset to the team; he's really taken us forward. I do think Michael contributes an awful lot, so I think the decision for Michael to stay or not continue is a difficult one."
The German who has seven Formula One world championships may end up with Mercedes as a brand ambassador or he may search for another ride. Since his return to the premier motor sports series in 2010, Schumacher has just one podium finish since his return, and that was on the Valencia street circuit this year. Prior to his return, Schumacher won 91 races from 1991 to 2006.
Schumacher apparently in his talks, and Sauber now has a empty cockpit with the departure of Sergio Perez to the McLaren team. The champion said, "I have had three nice years with the team which unfortunately did not go as well as we all would have wanted on the sporting side. I will now concentrate on the next races."
"On behalf of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, I would first of all like to thank Michael Schumacher for the important contribution he has made to the growth of our team over the past three seasons. His energy and commitment have never wavered, even when results have not matched our own expectations, and we are determined to finish the 2012 season together on a high. As always, it has been a pleasure to work with Michael,” said Brawn.

Mercedes admits that car is too slow

Mercedes leave Hockenheim braced for another tough weekend in Hungary, hoping to gain more speed for when Formula 1 regroups at Spa in September. Attempting a different strategy in Germany, Michael Schumacher managed only seventh position.
Schumacher’s race was a strong one, not least as he pulled a pass on Nico Hülkenberg in front of thousands of Mercedes employees, but the seven-time World Champion was unable to make any significant impression after running third in the early stages. Team-mate Nico Rosberg scored the final point from 21st on the starting grid.

“We ran the race as well as we could today, in the knowledge that we would have to make three pit-stops,” explained Team Principal Ross Brawn. “Some of our rivals on two-stop strategies faded towards the end but the drop-off was not sufficient for our drivers to be able to take advantage on fresher tyres.
“Michael and Nico put in consistent performances, pulled off good overtaking moves and we delivered six clean pit-stops. Our strategy enabled Nico to climb 11 positions from his starting place, while Michael finished in seventh place for the second time in two weeks.
“We made the right decisions this afternoon but, after 67 laps, Michael found himself 29 seconds behind the winner. That shows we need to find more pace from the car.”
At the halfway point of the 2012 Formula 1 season, the Mercedes factory squad sits fifth in the Constructors’ Championship and is trailing Red Bull by 125 points

Schumacher defends comeback choice

Michael Schumacher has defended his motivation for returning to Formula 1 this year, and says he still feels positive about his comeback despite suggestions that his middling form is sullying his legendary reputation.

In his first year back after a three-season absence, Schumacher rarely looked like the driver who dominated the sport for much of the 1990s and 2000s, winning a record seven titles along the way.

He was outpaced by Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg this year and made some uncharacteristic errors, but did show flashes of better form later in the season.

But in an interview with CNN, Schumacher said the most important thing was that he was enjoying being back on the grid.

“I feel I have the right to do what I enjoy,” he said.

“Whether I put in dispute my reputation, I just feel good about my decision and I have so much support from people.”

But despite clearly enjoying being back in the cockpit, Schumacher underlined that he was serious about winning again and not just racing for personal amusement.

“I certainly want to make it a successful return,” he declared.

“I'm only happy if I'm back on the winning road with the team.

“This is what I'm working for, this is the joy of the passion for Formula 1.”

He is confident that even though Mercedes didn't deliver a winning car in 2010, it has the capability to repeat the success its forerunner Brawn GP achieved in ’09.

“It's certainly not as successful as I thought initially and many other people have thought,” Schumacher said of his 2010 campaign.

“But then having such a strong group and team behind, Mercedes pushing it so hard, I have no doubt about success in the future.”

Hulkenberg fights for Force India seat

Nico Hulkenberg has set his sights on Force India as he fights to stay on the Formula 1 grid for 2011.
Along with Renault - which has strongly hinted that it will retain Vitaly Petrov - Force India is the only established team that has not yet announced its driver line-up for next season.

Incumbents Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi are thought to be strong contenders, along with reserve driver and DTM champion Paul di Resta, but Hulkenberg hopes he can convince Vijay Mallya's team to take him on instead of one of its existing trio.

"Force India is our best shot, but it is also no secret that quite a few drivers are trying to land a seat there," said Hulkenberg in an interview with the official Formula 1 website.

"We are talking to them and let’s wait and see what develops."

He said he was determined to keep fighting for a 2011 race seat rather than settling for a reserve role or looking outside F1.

"The hope is still there and I am not giving up," Hulkenberg declared.

"I hope I can give you a positive answer very soon. Hopefully before Christmas."

After a slow start to his rookie season with Williams, the former A1GP, Formula 3 Euro Series and GP2 champion raised his game from the middle of the year - and underlined his talent with a stunning pole position at a damp Interlagos.

But Williams dropped him in favour of new GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado at the end of the season - a decision Hulkenberg is convinced was due to the level of personal funding that Maldonado can bring.

"Sure, it has something to do with the still-difficult global financial situation," said Hulkenberg.

"It has become much harder to find funding - sponsors are either dropping out or cutting their budget.

"Unfortunately the team has not done too well over the last couple of years and we all know that Formula 1 is a tough business environment where your performance permanently judges you.

"And if you cannot produce that performance you eventually have to look for other ways to close the budget gap."

Hulkenberg admitted that his own lack of funding was an issue as he hunted for a new seat.

"It has become much, much harder to open doors if your application does not come with a serious sponsor package and you really only rely on your talent as the sole ‘sales argument,'" he said.

"This is quite frustrating and somewhat sad - especially if you can show you have had a good season as a reference."

Michael Schumacher surprised with Nico Rosberg’s performance

Michael Schumacher surprised with Nico Rosberg’s performance

The 7-time world champion, Michael Schumacher was surprised how his teammate, Nico Rosberg was able to outperform him during the 2010 Formula Season. The German blames the technical problems in his Mercedes for the poor season he embraced this year.

The 41-year-old has returned to Formula One after a period of three years as he announced retirement from the sport in 2007. The man, who is statistically the most successful driver of all times, believes that his poor performance this year is majorly because of the unsuitable car for him. The driver has neither won any of the 19 races of this season, nor had he been successful in bagging a podium. The best finish of the season seen by the driver was at 4^th place at the Korean Grand Prix while he wrapped the Japanese round at sixth place.

Having 72 points under his belt, the driver stands at 9^th pace in the drivers’ championship while his teammate and fellow country man, Rosberg, was successful in earning 142 points, finishing the season at 7^th place.
  

Before announcing his retirement after the 2006 season, the driver won seven World titles, winning four consecutively from 2000 to 2004. After finishing the 2006 season at a place behind, Fernando Alonso, who had his second world championship, the racing icon decided to retire. However, Schumacher’s oldest friend and one of the most successful team principals of Formula One, Ross Brawn embraced the driver in his team whole heartedly.

The German while talking to the media earlier today said, "The fastest driver is a reference for the other one, you see the data of how he drives, but it didn't work quite so well in the other car. Looking back, there were a few things (wrong) with my car. The exhaust got so hot that sometimes the underside of the car burnt or the F-Duct (a system to help the airflow) was triggered in parts of the track where it shouldn't have been."

Such technical problems with Schumacher’s car were witnessed earlier this year at the Belgian and Japanese Grand Prix, where the F-Duct of the car gave a lot of trouble to him on the track.

The driver now explained saying that he was facing several problems with his car all through the year but he preferred talking about it to the team behind closed doors instead of announcing publicly.

He further revealed that voices were raised behind closed doors at Mercedes’ all through the year as he voiced his frustration at team management. Especially the team Principal Ross Brawn has absorbed a lot of his anger and dissatisfaction, assuring him that the team will provide him a far better car for the upcoming season.
"I had no problems with Nico, but I told Norbert and Ross that it was time to find explanations," said Schumacher.

However, as the team and drivers get ready for next season, the racing icon Schumacher says that he is looking forward for a better season ahead. He is adamant to enter the new season leaving all the problems of this season behind as they move ahead for the next Drivers' Championship.

The team stopped all the development work of the 2010 car at the mid of the season turning all the focus towards the 2011 car. All the teams now expect to see a very strong Mercedes GP car as it was seen in 2009 when the squad bagged both the derivers’ as well as the constructers’ championship.