Morteza wrote:Found this on Top Gear website:
Some of you might liken it to a Greek tragedy; McLaren's prodigal son ‘not caring about the others', abandoning his generous parents and leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, forever doomed to mid-table obscurity in a team many believe don't have a chance of winning a championship.
That's one way of looking at it:
Here's another I've posted elsewhere which I think Merc fans ought to chew on as well as Hamilton fans:
Lewis’ entire motivation for going to Mercedes-Benz has all to do with those clauses that allow him to “Promote his Personal Brand and Image as he sees fit”.
It’s common knowledge that XIX Entertainment have held a higher regard of prestige for the three-pointed star than the brand at Woking.
The clauses will allow Hamilton to “individualize” himself as a celebrity, a symbol. He’ll be a star (like his girlfriend).
And that goes, even if the car never finishes higher than 4th ever. This is the life he probably always wanted and why he increasingly took on that Hollywood lifestyle which clashed with McLaren’s view of how he should be managed.
Now he’s free to do just that.
Even if the car never finishes higher than 4th.
You’ll know this is true when the clauses actually allow him to appear in different colored overalls from his teammate and he can skip sessions because he has his own photoshoots and is inspecting his own merchandise.
The clause completely separates his own “performance” from that of the team’s.
He can be a “winner” even if Mercedes trundle around in the mid-field. He only needs to keep up the image of being a “fighter punching above his weight” to make the whole thing work.
It must be noted that Lewis is taking on representation that is VERY different to typical sports or F1 representation.
This is representation used in Entertainment (which I have some familiarity with).
So I think I need to clarify my view:
As a celebrity/talent you need to be able to post “forward momentum” or “winning image” even without any material progress. Traditionally as an F1 driver you’d have to say you want to win World Championships and you need to keep winning to keep that brand up. That’s the old way (the MS way) of doing it. Lewis knows first hand brands/talents like his girlfriend Nicole continue to have upward momentum even if she does not make album after album or score platinum 10x in a row.
She doesn’t have to do that. Chances are XIX have advised him that neither does he to “win at the game of life”.
Lewis has tried running with his talent, but instead of him being the dominant power of F1, F1 in recent years has become the Sebastian Vettel show. Lewis has seen that in the age of limited testing, the power of success of a talented driver is limited. If he had won World Titles straight on-the-trot with McLaren and with his dad, Anthony, I doubt he would have considered "other paths to happiness" and I doubt he would have landed at XIX.
But he's there. Because he sees other "achievers" happy there at XIX - even when nothing in particular is happening. Look at the clientele at XIX and you'll know I speak the truth.
Judging from the usual way F1 talent is handled by teams, he's been told the same thing many other drivers have been told: "Wear the uniform, do the work. Make the car faster and we'll collect silverware". His father probably pushed him in the same direction.
He's tired of that. He's hitting 30 soon. He's looking for something else now. He's done it "their way" before and all he has to show for it is one World Title and some other trophies. That may be pretty good achievement. But up the pitlane are people with more Titles than him. "Their way" didn't work. Across the pond, Hamilton finds his Entertainment friends are happier. So I think he's going to do it "XIX's way" from now on.
Take note he still needs to keep up that talk though about the championships and the challenges. Because the F1 "Market" demands he talks as a "fighter" as "someone taking on challenges". And don't worry, he'll still drive the wheels off any car he's in. Because that's his "character". His girlfriend sings at the top of her lungs and he travels around the world doing quick laps.
But the people around him (his celebrity friends and XIX) no doubt have understood for some time that winning in straight terms isn’t necessary.
For people outside of Entertainment, staying ahead with only the “veneer” of high performance sounds like a facade. In Entertainment, that is actually the sustaining goal of Entertainment Representation like XIX.
For Lewis, it now means he never has to worry if Vettel wins 20 championships from now on.
He will be more famous. He will be more marketable. He will be more wealthy.
He will be the “winner”.
This is how it will work:
The clauses in his contract will allow Lewis to run his own "operation". To make his own gear, his own merchandise, wear them even on Sundays (regardless of what the team might want him to use/wear). He'll be his own entity. This is not new. This is how "Ferrari Drivers" used to operate back in the early days.
He will be "external" to the team. He will drive the car 10/10ths every race weekend. He will fight. He will struggle and they will use that as part of his "marketing". Lewis will "have his fun" and if he starts winning anyway? Even better.
XIX and Lewis could try and create an image, slowly, where it's "Lewis Hamilton drives a Mercedes" rather than "Lewis Hamilton is a Mercedes Driver". There's a difference. Why else would he want so much Self-Brand freedom in his contract?
XIX is prepared to use ANY result or any publicity from Lewis' F1 activity REGARDLESS of result. If Mercedes hit a good patch and make a dominant car? Bonus. If they continue as they have? Lewis doesn't care. He's got his merchandise, his endorsements, his magazine photoshoots....
He'll be busy enough "winning at everything else".
The model for "success" for the 2013 spec LH will be these:
