Lewis leaving McLaren for Mercedes shocked the F1 world. Not me though. With McLaren's properly crap reliability record, it really is no surprise.

Lewis and the McLaren were a formidable force, just like Kimi Raikonnen was in a McLaren in 2003 and 2005. Lewis won his World Championship in 2008, but he achieved that on a last lap of the last race of the season. Cutting it very close indeed. He has had fantastic race wins since 2008, but McLaren's reliability hasn't helped. He could've potentially won another championship this year, but mechanical failures in Singapore and Abu Dhabi put paid to his ambitions. Lewis-McLaren was the fastest driver-car package ever since Kimi Raikonnen left McLaren in 2006.





This is again reminiscent of the Kimi Raikonnen-McLaren era, where Kimi and McLaren were the fastest package on any given track and they had Adrian Newey as well. How could they not win a championship or two? YouTube clips of the 2005 season clearly show that Kimi was always the fastest man on track in any given grand prix, but he still failed to win the championship. I bet the only reason people loved to watch Formula 1 in 2005 was to watch Kimi carve his way through the field for a podium finish after yet another engine failure penalty. Or watch Kimi suffer a mechanical failure after dominating the race in the first half.

Magazine article highlighting McLaren's mechanical failures.

After another disappointing season with McLaren in 2006, he went to Ferrari and instantly became world champion. Lewis-Mercedes for champion 2013? Who knows. But McLaren really did suffer. They lost the best drivers in Formula 1, Kimi and Lewis.