"They owe him everything": Mercedes owes Lewis Hamilton all its success, according to F1 pundit

Sky Sports F1 pundit Simon Lazenby has claimed that the Mercedes F1 team 'owes' Lewis Hamilton for their success in the sport.

The British driver joined the German manufacturer at the start of the 2013 season after he made the high-profile switch from McLaren. Before Hamilton's arrival, Mercedes had no championships to their name, with one race win in 2012.

In the last 11 years, they have had 114 race wins to their name and eight World Championships, with Hamilton contributing with 82 victories and six World Championships of his own.

While appearing on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Simon Lazenby spoke about Lewis Hamilton bringing success to the team and his desire to be treated with respect in his final year. He said:

“Lewis has brought everything to Mercedes. Therefore, they kind of do owe him, a little bit. I think they owe him everything really and they probably owe him the respect he deserves, to treat him like the great champion he is for the time he has remaining at Mercedes. As far as he is concerned, I don’t think it’s going to be emotion.

"It’s about he’ll get through the season. He’ll know early on whether he’s got a car to compete for the championship and I think that could be the key. If he does, yeah, they’ll have to rally around whoever’s the best driver again, really.”

Martin Brundle gives his take on Lewis Hamilton's switch to Ferrari

Former F1 driver Martin Brundle, meanwhile, has stated that he didn't buy the emotional angle of Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari and termed the former as a 'winning machine'.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, the Sky F1 pundit reflected on the switch, saying:

"There is an exit clause or a performance-related clause, which are really hard to write and really hard to sort of measure, as it were. So I don’t see really any downside here and I don’t buy all of ‘this is going to be emotional’.

“Lewis is a winning machine. And that’s what he wants to do and it’s a good contract. He’s going to be paid a lot of money, and he’ll get a lot of love. It will be one of the biggest global sports stories in 2025 so I just see positives all around.”

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton both hope to cap off their historic partnership in the best possible manner with more success in their last season together.