Ross Brawn has urged fans of Lewis Hamilton to back the driver's decision to move to Mercedes at the end of the season.
Team Principal urges fans to understand real reasons Hamilton moved
Ross Brawn has urged fans of Lewis Hamilton to back the driver's decision to move to Mercedes at the end of the season.
Some supporters took to social media sites to voice their disbelief that the 2008 World Champion was leaving McLaren for the Silver Arrows, who have won just once since their return to the sport in 2010.
Although many suspected money to have been the deciding factor in Hamilton's thinking,the Mercedes boss says fans need to understand the long-term project underway at Brackley.
"I think they need to understand the reasons for Lewis' choice," Brawn told
The F1 Show.
"Lewis is a very bright, intelligent person and I think he has made this choice based on the evidence of what we are doing here. So I think support his choice.
"We will have our ups and downs over the next few months and years, but we are determined to succeed and I think we now have all the ingredients we need to succeed."
Marussia Team President Graeme Lowdon echoed Brawn's belief that Hamilton had moved for racing reasons.
Lowdon knows Hamilton well having played a part in his junior career when the Englishman raced for Manor Competition in Formula Renault and Formula 3 - Manor operate and run the Marussia F1 team.
"Lewis is a great guy, he is one of the most competitive people you will ever meet," Lowdon told
The F1 Show.
"He raced for Manor in Formula Renault and Formula 3 and he was the same then, he was absolutely competitive and the absolute professional and all he wants to do is win. He has a team of managers around him and it is their job to maximise the commercial opportunities for him and I'm sure they listened an awful lot to what Ron (Dennis) was saying and all the rest of it.
"But I'm sure all the rest of that is a kind of smoke and mirrors around the decision and I'm sure it was Lewis' decision to do what he wants to do and he made the decision as to where he thought he could win."
With a radical new set of rules being introduced in 2014, Lowdon added that perhaps Brawn's history of achieving success by exploiting regulation changes could have helped sway Hamilton.
"Ross is a very, very bright guy," he said. "And he has hinted at a period of evolution before success, so I think 2013 is that period of evolution.
"We have seen it before with Ross, when there have been changes in rules or something and he has had the environment when he can take a long term, two or three year view and come out with some really great cars.
"The Brawn was a car that really captured that particular set of rules then and it has happened two or three times, maybe even in sports cars as well. So perhaps maybe there will be less pressure in 2013, but the chance to win the title in 2014."
