It would appear that McLaren have not given up on retaining Lewis Hamilton with reports that the Woking based team are set to match Mercedes offer in order to secure Hamilton's signature. The news comes as Mercedes are set to hold a board meeting in Stuttgart tomorrow afternoon where it is expected that a decision on the team's future and their 2013 driver line up could be decided.
The term's of the Mercedes contract have not been disclosed however it is thought that the team are offering Hamilton greater freedom in relation to endorsements. It has been reported that McLaren have increased their offer to Hamilton from £10 million to £12 million in line with what Mercedes are offering.
I believe that once the Mercedes meeting is concluded there will be a domino effect in the driver market. Michael Schumacher holds the key to the look of the 2013 grid. Should Schumacher retire and be replaced by Hamilton, there will be a vacancy at McLaren alongside Jenson Button. Over at Ferrari there is the potential for a vacancy as Felipe Massa is under intense pressure as the 2012 season draws to a close.
Should Ferrari as expected release Massa, there are a number of driver's who could be in the frame for the seat alongside Fernando Alonso. For example, former Force India driver Adrian Sutil who was released by the Silverstone based team at the end of last year is apparently on the look out for a return to F1 and could be a good fit for Ferrari.
Meanwhile McLaren could make a swoop for Sauber's Sergio Perez who has been extremely impressive so far this season. The young Mexican who is part of Ferrari's young driver programme is cruelly not contracted to the Italian team and this would allow McLaren to sign him on a long term deal. So the question remains who would Ferrari go for? Well there is the possibility of the team trying to sign Paul Di Resta from Force India, however any deal could be problematic as Ferrari are apparently lining up Sebastian Vettel for 2014.
Another option for McLaren is Paul Di Resta who as I said in a previous post is now represented by Jenson Button's manager Richard Goddard. That would prove a good move for the Woking team as they would be dealing with one management company.
So if Perez stays at Sauber next season, Felipe Massa could go to Force India replacing Paul Di Resta as he would a lot of experience to the team and would be a good partner for Nico Hulkenberg. Over at Lotus it is is highly likely that the Enstone squad are going to retain Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean who have proven to be one of the best lineup's this season that has resulted in Kimi being in third in the championship with Romain 8th while the team are in a solid fourth place in the Constructor's championship.
So here is what I think will be the possible driver- lineups for 2013:
RedBull Racing: 1. Sebastian Vettel 2. Mark Webber CONFIRMED
McLaren Mercedes: 3. Lewis Hamilton? Sergio Perez? Paul Di Resta? Heikki Kovalainen 4. Jenson Button CONFIRMED
Ferrari: 5. Fernando Alonso CONFIRMED 6. Felipe Massa? Paul Di Resta? Jules Bianchi?
Lotus: 7. Kimi Raikkonen LIKELY 8. Romain Grosjean LIKELY
Mercedes AMG: 9. Nico Rosberg CONFIRMED 10. Michael Scumacher? Lewis Hamilton? Paul Di Resta?
Sauber F1: 11: Sergio Perez? Felip Massa? 12. Kamui Kobayashi?
Force India: 14: Paul Di Resta? Felipe Massa? 15. Nico Hulkenberg?
Williams F1: 16: Pastor Maldonado? 17. Bruno Senna? Valterri Bottas?
Toro Rosso: 18. Daniel Ricciardo? 19. Jean Eric Vergne?
Marussia F1 Team: 20. Timo Glock? 21. Charles Pic? Max Chilton?
Caterham F1 Team: 22. Heikki Kovalainen? 23. Vitaly Petrov? Alexander Rossi? Giedo Van Der Garde?
HRT: 24. Pedro Dela Rosa? 25. Narain Karthikeyan?
In a twist to the Lewis Hamilton Mercedes story The Times in the UK are reporting that triple world champion Niki Lauda has reportedly been offered a senior role within the Mercedes team should Hamilton decide to join the team. Lauda has previously worked for Ferrari and during the 1990's and also worked with the High Perfomance Division of the Ford Motor Company before being installed as Team Principal of Jaguar Racing in 2001 replacing the sacked Bobby Rahal.
So we shall have to wait and see what happens in the next couple of days. I will of course keep you all posted on any developments.
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