Hamilton has a lot to consider when deciding his future

Following his third retirement of the season during yesterday's Singapore GrandPrix I believe that Lewis Hamilton has an awful lot to think about when deciding his future plans. The 2008 World Champion has been linked with a move to Mercedes for months now and a decision is apparently due on Wednesday.

Lewis has been affiliated with the McLaren team since he was 13 years of age and has been in Formula One with them since his debut in 2007. When he originally signed for McLaren in 2007 the economic landscape was completely different to how it is now. Next season McLaren will have to pay £8 million for their supply of Mercedes engines so that is another cost for them.

Since joining McLaren in 2007, Hamilton has finished 2nd, 1st, 5th, 4th and 5th in the Driver's Championship. As it stands with 6 races to go in 2012 he lies in 4th place 52 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso. He has two offers on the table one on a reduced salary from McLaren and the other on a substantially higher salary then McLaren are offering.

It is not just about the money however, when you compare the statistics, McLaren last won the Constructor's Champion in 1998 and last won the Driver's title with Lewis in 2008 whereas Mercedes won both the Driver's and Constructor's championship in 2009 with Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton's current team mate.

As it stands with six race's to go, Lewis is on target to finish ahead of Jenson in the championship however that will come as little relief to McLaren as they are mainly interested in the Constructors championship if they are not in a position to win the driver's championship.

Another factor to consider is the point that Jenson Button made following the Italian GrandPrix that he was not willing to play a supporting role to Lewis Hamilton this season as he believes that the team should keep their equal status amongst the driver's if neither of them are no longer in the hunt for the championship. A fact that he has apparently made very clear to team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

If Lewis Hamilton is looking for number one driver status, in my opinion he should switch to Mercedes because based on pure results alone he would arguably be in a position to beat Nico Rosberg in a straight fight in an equal car.

Lewis Hamilton is represented in F1 by Simon Fuller and his management company XIX Entertainment and with Formula One heading back to the US for two race's next season a move to Mercedes in my opinion would be ideal as he would be the perfect person to help Mercedes market their brand in the US he would also unlike at McLaren be free to align himself with personal sponsorship.

McLaren made an exception for Hamilton a number of years ago when they allowed him to team up with Reebok, however traditionally McLaren's main focus has always been on their own sponsors and they have always ensured that their driver's are committed to them.

Mercedes also have to look a what they have at the moment, they have Nico Rosberg, a young star with a bright future in F1 who already this season has delivered Mercedes their first win since they returned to Formula One as a fully fledged manufacturer in 2010 and then they also have Michael Schumacher, the seven time's world champion who came out of retirement in 2010 and who since his return to the sport has been comprehensively beaten year on year by Nico Rosberg. He has failed to show the signs that brought him success with Ferrari and Ross Brawn, some may say that it's down to the car however with the same car Nico Rosberg has won a race and been on the podium numerous times with Mercedes over the last three seasons whereas Schumacher has only the single podium he achieved in Valencia this season when he finished in third.

Another key factor that the team must consider is the fact that before next season comes around on 17th March Michael Schumacher will have turned 44 years old, and I don't care how fit a driver is at that driving a Formula One car at over  200 miles per hour his reactions can't be a sharp as they once were. This was evident during yesterday's race in Singapore where Schumacher collided with Jean Eric Vergne taking them both out following thee accident his race engineer asked over the radio 'What happened there?' following an investigation by the race stewards Schumacher was handed a 10 place grid penalty for the next race in Japan.

In my opinion, Michael should take a long look in the mirror and decide is it really worth me continuing? He has won seven world championships, and is the most successful driver in the history of the sport and it is highly unlikely that anyone will ever come close to matching or even beating that feat.

The team must also consider their current position in the Constructor's championship, as it stands they currently lie in 5th place on 136 points, 95 points behind Lotus who are in fourth.

I understand that Michael Schumacher is still held in very high regard in Germany and there would undoubtedly be a back lash if he was to  be replaced by Lewis Hamilton, however, in my opinion, Mercedes need to look at the bigger picture, if the team want to be successful in Formula One they need to have the best driver's currently available to them and I believe that with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg who were team mate's in the lower formulae they would have one of the strongest driver line-ups on the grid.

If however, Schumacher is intent on staying involved in Formula One Mercedes can always do with him what RedBull have down with DC and that is to make him a driver consultant as Ross Brawn has said that there could be room for him in management should he decide to retire from racing, however if still wanted to drive the car he could take part in demonstration runs as DC does with RedBull.

During his first stint in Formula One, Schumacher gained the reputation of being a dirty driver and this is a reputation that in my opinion since his comeback he has retained and the incident yesterday is a prime example. So far this season out of the 14 races we've had Schumacher has failed to finish 50 percent of them, now granted some of them were as a result of car failures however he has been involved in a number of crashes most notably in Barcelona and in Singapore.