After months of agonising, weighing up the pros and cons and trying to separate the emotional turmoil from the professional decision he had to make, Lewis Hamilton braced himself for the hardest phone call of his life.
The speculation surrounding his future and the pressure to make a decision came to a head as he sat by the pool of a secluded Thailand resort, only his trainer and trusted confidant Antti Vierula for company.
The time had come to tell his boss, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, he was joining Mercedes.
“It was the hardest call I have ever had to make,” said Hamilton, speaking publicly for the first time - in a meeting room of the Conrad Hotel in downtown Tokyo - about his life-changing decision.
VERY EMOTIONAL
“It was just really, really emotional. I didn’t just pick up the phone. I took a step back and really thought about what I wanted to say. I wanted to make sure that Martin knew how much I appreciated all the support he has given me over the years.
“I have an incredible relationship with him. He is so easy to work with, so welcoming, so forgiving when you make mistakes. Very much more a friend than a boss. I called him and said, ‘Look, I’ve decided to go this way’.”
His decision has left plenty of people in and around Formula One scratching their heads. Hamilton is, after all, leaving a team who have won one of every four races they have contested to join another who, in their current guise, have a solitary victory in nearly three seasons.
But nobody has deliberated over the move more than Hamilton.
“I hadn’t spoken to my management much during the process. I was just searching for myself, deciding what I wanted to do,” said Hamilton, rejecting the notion that his representatives, Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment, had coerced him into joining Mercedes.
“It was like a pendulum. One moment I’d think, ‘Let’s go for it’, the next I’d think, ‘I’m going to stay’. Eventually it became clear in my mind.
“I had the feeling a few days before but it stuck with me and I didn’t have any swinging back. Then I got to Thailand and it was incredibly peaceful and I just sat by the pool and thought for several hours.
“It was important to do it on my terms in my own time rather than other people’s. I wasn’t going to be rushed into this decision although there was a lot of pressure - Martin had been asking me when I was going to do a deal since China last year. It was not about the offers. I had two offers on the table which were very similar. Martin asked what more they could have done. To be honest, it was about the new challenge and a step I wanted to make.”
Hamilton laid bare the emotions he has been through while weighing up whether to leave the team he joined as a 13-year-old for the fresh challenge of Mercedes.
Even so, there is something slightly perverse listening to him chat about helping to transform the fortunes of Mercedes while McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale, chief designer Paddy Lowe and other top brass enjoy a drink in the 28th-floor bar next door.
A FUNNY VIBE IN THE GARAGE
It is certainly a metaphor for the strange dynamic Hamilton must endure over the remaining six races of the campaign, starting with Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
“It will be interesting walking into the garage because there are a couple of guys who work on my car who have been there with me since 2007,” said Hamilton of facing his mechanics for the first time since announcing his decision.
“I have not had a chance to speak to them. I told Martin I wanted to have a big get-together in the canteen and speak to the team.”
Hamilton might have trouble squaring that with McLaren Group executive chairman Ron Dennis, who set the 2008 world champion on the road to stardom, as it seems their relationship has been irrevocably damaged.
“I tried to get hold of Ron, but I did not manage to speak to him,” said Hamilton before addressing the subject of his so-called betrayal. “You will have to ask Ron if he feels that way. When I spoke to Martin I said that the plan was not to burn bridges. I don’t feel I am going out of McLaren through the back door. I am going out the front door happily.” -Daily Mail