When we first heard the rumours of British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton leaving the Woking based team McLaren we openly classed it all as wild speculation, but how wrong we were… World Champion Lewis did indeed leave the team that he has been with since he was a boy in karting for the Mercedes AMG F1 outfit. A combination of uncompetitive cars, near misses and team errors finalised his decision for 2013. Did he make the right choice? The worlds media didn’t think so as the Mercedes wasn’t just slow, but being honest, a bit of an embarrassment to the German manufacturer. Why would he commit what was then seen a career suicide? Clearly he knew something we all didn’t.

The main reason for his correct change of allegiance is that in 2014 the F1 rules change dramatically and Mercedes are set to be in the best position to produce a championship winning car. With plenty of money and many engineering bigwigs poached from other teams, the three pointed star should be on good form. Today with the first practice sessions out of the way for 2013 it turns out that Hamilton might just have a race winning car this year also. His old team, McLaren, are struggling to understand the ground-up redesign of what was the fastest car of 2012.

So it would appear Lewis Hamilton’s leap of faith has paid off. Only race day will tell us for sure but the young Brit is in good standings, certainly much better than what we all thought he would be.