The early 2010s was a strange period in F1. While we saw a roller coaster of excitement and domination; there were a whole lot of subplots in the soap opera of F1. One such drama arose when Lewis Hamilton was looking for a new team in 2012. After being with McLaren for 6 years, Lewis was looking to avoid the inconsistency of the Woking team. He eventually signed up with Mercedes. Although it wasn’t easy for the Silver Arrows as former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone revealed.

In his latest docu-series Lucky, Ecclestone addressed how he was willing to help Hamilton to get to Mercedes without any issues. As per Sports Illustrated, Ecclestone cited how the Briton was demanding a $50 million salary at that time from the Brackley outfit.

Bernie said Mercedes were slightly hesitant to pay this huge amount. Thus the $3-billion worth F1 boss offered to empty his own pockets for sealing the deal. He stated, “So I said ‘well he’s somebody that I think Mercedes needs, I’ll pay the difference’. But eventually, Mercedes paid.” 

Ecclestone’s revelation reflects a lot on how the deal for Hamilton’s parkour from McLaren to Mercedes might have fallen in place. The British billionaire also did a satire on the same in his 2012 Christmas postcard that showed how Lewis was jumping into the Mercedes car getting away from his McLaren F1 car.

Either way, Bernie is famous for his fearless satire on Christmas cards. Likewise, he did not hesitate to spill the beans on Hamilton’s $50 million salary demand.

Read More: Ex-F1 Chief Bernie Ecclestone Once Humiliated Lewis Hamilton for His Over the Top Personality: “He Is Doing It for Him, Not for Formula 1”

Lewis certainly would have been grateful to Bernie for helping him trigger the history-making move to the Silver Arrows. Despite no monetary help, the billionaire tycoon committing to be the facilitator for Mercedes and Hamilton solidified the deal to fall in place. Today, Hamilton is reaping the rewards of those tough negotiations.

How Niki Lauda convinced Lewis Hamilton to join Mercedes

Back in 2012, Mercedes were a dark horse that few expected to go big. Nonetheless, Niki Lauda who was the Non-executive director of the Brackley team approached Lewis Hamilton for a seat. In an interview with Graham Bensinger, Lauda admitted how difficult it was to convince Lewis.

The 3-time champion visited Hamilton in his hotel room during a race weekend for talking about the Mercedes offer. After the preliminary talks, Lewis asked Niki why should he join the Silver Arrows. The Briton reasoned how he was with a race-winning team at McLaren and Mercedes was a mid-field team back then.

To this, Lauda replied how he would get to be the first-ever World champion for the Mercedes team. The 2008 champion knew how he had won only 1 world title with McLaren in 5 years before then. Besides that, Lewis was also suffering from a lot of team issues in races with pit stops, strategies, and car reliability.

Thus, Hamilton agreed to race for Mercedes from 2013 onwards and the rest is history. 77 poles, 142 podiums, 82 wins, and 6 world championships to date. Lewis certainly got his career risk to fruition.

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It all began with influence from Bernie Ecclestone and some persuasion from the late Niki Lauda. Today, the 7-time champion would be grateful to both of them for pushing him to build his career with Mercedes. What do you think of Hamilton’s Mercedes move?