You dont need a crystal ball to know that mercedes are falling off

LH doesn’t need a crystal ball- he is just damn good and smart. Merc SHOULD have listened to him 2 years back!! Great athletes are able to “see” and “feel” when equipment, strategy, and competition are going to perform or not!

He’s clearly seen the development work over the winter and thought ‘I’m off’. Given how early the Ferrari move was announced, I think it shows he’s lost faith in Mercedes’ direction of travel and doesn’t have the time to wait around if he wants that 8th world title. I’m convinced he will get it at Ferrari. Just like McLaren all those years ago, it feels like it could be another very well timed move for him.

That Hamilton aint stupid thats why hes going to Ferrari

Ferrari makes the most compelling argument that even with decades of single minded devotion, unlimited financial resources, industry leading expertise, and championship winning tier talents, don’t necessarily guarantee competitiveness …

From Mclaren, he moved to mercedes. Mclaren went downhill and mercedes became a monster of a team. Will he do it again with his switch to Ferrari?

Hamilton's move is a combination of being fed up with Mercedes' lack of progress and direction, combined with wanting a multi-year deal. Same reason Alonso went to AM. In both cases, the current team were only prepared to offer a 1 year contract with an option.

Crystal ball? Merc Turbo advantage gone. And Ferrari gave Lewis way better contract. That’s it

Remember 6 months ago when Sky were talking up how Allison was going to make the 2024 a possible title contender?

Sack the aero department.

Forget the chat , Free Vasseur is the silent assassin

damon got it bang on. Toto inherited a solid team

They had a huge power advantage (engine) and their Mgu-H implementation was so OP that they can put a more aerodynamically 'lossy' car and still win.

Ferrari was only the crystal ball's second choice - Hamilton was rejected by Red Bull first. Wolff's inheritance has run out.

1:09 SOO TRUE. This should be mentioned a lot!

I’m a RB guy but you gotta give respect for Toto he have 8 Constructor's Championships under his belt… can’t say the work starts now.

You have to give l-h some credit, he knows when things have run their course , like at mclaren, like when mclaren had kimi they lost him several championships with unreliability same was happening to Lewis there and although amg f1 is reliable its just not fast enough and no change in sight. Its actually a straight forward decision.

He does always say he wants to be involved in every aspect of building the car, he must've seen something .

No one ever mentions that Adrian Newey was around for the last generation of ground effect cars, he literally had a head start with what would work or not

if Lewis has a crystal ball it has a year delay on it.

ground effect is about fully taking advantage of all the possible airflow everywhere... Merc will get there in the end, only two people i like listening to. Karoon and Damon. Lewis has taken a massive risk, but he's always been an ALL or Nothing kind of guy. Adrian leaving redbull and Merc having issues is great news for everyone else, REALLY makes me hopeful for a best of the rest resurgence next year. I'd love to see Aston, Mclaren and Ferrari duking it out instead of Redbully vs Meshadies , fingers crossed next year is more fun, hate it when the politics and news outshades the races.

Mercedes downfall needs to be studied at University of Oxford 🙈😂🤷

Nice to see Damon 🙂

The problem? Aldo Costa the greatest car designer in F1 history left Mercedes at the end of 2020. Yet noone talks about this.

I haven't seen Ted Kravitz this race.😂😂😂😂

Leclerc is way faster than Russell. What's the excuse next year going to be? Somehow i doubt Ferrari will be inclined to copy and paste that "Lewis was just experimenting" weekend after weekend of under performing.

All these problems would be solved if the FIA simply banned Newey 🤣

500m profit but your no longer allowed to spend all of it on the cars - unless you fudge the catering expenses like red bull 😂😂

I think everyones going to be on him if he doesnt win at ferrari but I dont think hes moved there to win entirely, hes moved there to turn up to work dressed in all red ever since he wanted to as a kid, I think winning will be the added bonus.

no one needed any crystal ball when the obvious was so clear.

Mercedes know that RB is bending the rules they just haven't found where yet. I think Mercedes new 0pod design is genius and should've been kept. RB must be doing some trickery with the electric part of the powertrain.

Given the Adrian Newey news it’s clear he got word of something we weren’t aware of

Lewis is smart and even if it doesn't work out at least he gave it a go, but under Fred things are going in the right direction. Toto doesn't seem to handle problems

Finally someone points out that Toto inherited a ready made winner. ;)

I would crystal ball if he did it right after 2021 but its common sense now. I really think next year is the year for him to get number 8. With regs changing in 26 again, who knows which teams might adapt better.

Sir Lewis + Ferrari + Newey = 🏆… RB and Horner have f’d it big time

I can’t believe this is the same Mercedes’ who are not doing well but I’m sure Lewis next year will make Ferrari a championship winning team and give him a competitive car which Mercedes’ couldn’t

They didn’t make enough changes last year, if they had and it went well I think they’d be with Ferrari.

We all know Brawn left the foundations

Same crystal ball he had when he left McLaren to join Mercedes in the first place. He is driving the cars and knows when they are hopeless.

Is Merc new Williams, from championship winning team to a mid-field or worse?

My Crystal ball says you don't need a Crystal ball to figure this one out

Are we still pretending those regulation changes were for better racing and not for higher profit margins?

budget cap era just isn't Mercedes thing. And I've been a pretty decent Lewis and Mercedes fan for over 3 years now

The people inside the team is questionable...!!! Its already 3-years and they're still working on the setup..!!

In his back? 😂😂😂😂😂

If he had a crystal ball, he would have left 2 years ago

See what happens over season, plus what occurs during new technical regulations next season.

Why does Russell always out perform hamilton when they both have the same equipment

Mercedes now has two problems: The budget cap (Not any longer is the sky the limit...) And not fully understanding the ground effect concept.

No crystal ball. He turns 40 next year. It’s called management of your own time. Ferrari is no guarantee, look at Vettel.

2 of the 3 Mercedes costumer teams (except for Stroll) are finishing ahead of Mercedes. In contrast to last rules era, it's not an engine era, but an aero era now, and it doesn't seem like they can get a hold of it. Lewis is just bailing ship.

Fired all the technicians who drove the ship in the years prior.

Its the car not the driver..... I think Russell thinks so as well.

People saying now it's obvious but when we heard the news everyone was saying he should have waited coss they be fast bla bla 😅

Mercedes had so much success that a lot of their top engineers got poached to top teams. That’s how it works. Success at one places opens up new door of opportunity at another (along with a salary increase.)

Why are you advertsiing Mercedes on the floor of your studio? Glad I dont pay for this nonsense.

Mercedes will have a monster engine for the 2026 new regulations era. That’s when they’ll be back to normal. Until then it’s just about damage control, there’s not much else to do at this point, they simply failed in exploring the opportunities of the current regulations.

Do u need a crystal ball to know ur car is running out of fuel? There are clear signs and being on the inside of the team clearly he can read them. He ain’t stupid

Hahaha crystal ball. Everyone has seen merc falling back..

Crystal ball? Common sense

Toto isn't worried as long as the cash rolls in, same with all the teams.

It does show how hard it is when you dont have a huge engine advantage on the whole grid

I reckon he made the right move in going to Ferrari as Mercedes are going nowhere with Ferrari looking like they could be the team to beat in 2026

You don't need a crystal ball to see they are out of sort. Stevie wonder could see that from a mile away

Wolff should take responsibility and resign. It’s the 3rd season like that.

Harris Lewington

Can they drive the 2022 car yet on the test track, maybe they can learn how to stabilise that car and carry the lessons learned over to the 2024 car

Either a crystal ball, or he knew the changes he apparently requested to be implemented this year would be this poor. Either way looks like he's making the right move getting out

I still think Mercedes are better placed than Ferrari long term to fight for a championship. But they need some proper reinvestment in the team. They were over reliant on the power unit advantage and the wind tunnel has been the same since the Honda days. They need strong reinforcement in the infrastructure

The only people who need to look through some glass to see clearly are presenters & pundits that endlessly ask ‘are Mercedes back’ despite the last three years of their yo-yoing performance. The writing has been on the wall for ages. That’s why Toto is constantly trying to distract by speculating about Verstappen & biging up Antonelli.

Its clear as crystal to see Mercedes are a failure.

Ohh Damon hill! At last someone is saying as it is!!! Toto moved into this team! Team brawn!!!!

What if he never had it but has always been part of a very well structured plan and we stop saying things just for the sake of saying something?

Lewis Hamilton is a calculative person....

Remember he moved to Mercedes a year before the new regs and only won one race and then began his domination with the hybrid era. Now again, he's moving to Ferrari a year before the new regs 😬

Mercedes didn't listen to him in development. Russel maybe like Alonso drives around the problem and doesn't care as long as he is beating his team mate. It's one of the reasons the Ferrari was so poor in the other drivers hands when Alonso was there. Kimi specifically complained about this. While Alonso was trouncing him in qualifying and race.

“My team don’t make mistakes” - Lewis Hamilton (March 2022)

Playstation46

The three most pro Hamilton pundits to talk about Hamilton...I wonder how that goes

Lewis is under performing deliberately? 😅

Why are they socially distancing?

The way I see it, there are too much political games behind the team and seems like LH felt that the team doesn't value his output as much anymore. And IMO, he probably felt that the most when he first tested the W15, and with that feelings confirmed, he decided and announced to go to Ferrari which values him more. I am not hating on GR, but for me he clearly lacks consistency and composure to be a champion and Mercedes picked him as LH replacement but that didn't go to the plan as well as they hope. And with CL is in similar situation as GR, LH can still be pretty competitive at Ferrari next year. Unless his age suddenly affect him too hard, then he will just fulfill his contract and finally retire lol

Sky their lovechild are not where they want them to be

then i got a crystal ball... you got a crystall ball ... we all got a crystal ball ... lokl ... dudes you dont need a crystall to see Merc got too many reverse gears in that car

This is not hard. Lewis drove the car on the simulator and knew that it would not be a championship contender, hence the move to Ferrari. That's simple.

You don't travel to the races anymore?

Crystal Ball? Before the cars hitting the road they have already so much information vom the Simulator that he with his experience knows if the car will be fast or not. Now is the move to Ferrari a good move? Maybe, they are looking stronger. Will they give him a car where he can win another championship? Who know, nobody knows. I think for him was more to do something new I guess.

Mercedes has been falling apart since 2020 when they blew the pit stops for Russel and Bottas.

He's got a crystal ball if Adrian Newey joins Ferrari.

I didn't see Ted stroking Hamiltons ego.

He doesnt need a crystal ball, the offer was too good to turn down, a no brainer really. Multiple advantages:- 1) He's secured 4 more years in F1 at almost 40 years of age. 2) He's moving to a team that has won more races and secured more pole positions in this new rule set than Merc so every chance he'll have a more successful time in 2025 than if he stayed. 3) Given that Merc has been unable to adapt well to a reg change, the introduction of a bigger reg change in 2026 means that Ferrari has a good chance to be one of the leading contenders and maybe even favourite given the Red Bull gamble with making its own power plant. 4) He's been made the highest paid driver on the grid plus additional funds for all the causes he supports. 5) A chance to drive for the most iconic team in F1. 6) A chance to make history as only the 2nd driver to win the championship with 3 different constructors. Given all the upsides, why wouldn't he move? I also don't think he predicted the depth of difficulties that Merc are currently suffering but he must have known that no team is beating Red Bull and Max for the next two seasons so moving in 2025 to Ferrari makes sense from a timing point of view.

Red Bull were great until the hybrid era. Mercedes were great until ground effect. He’s not daft. One year to get his eye in at Ferrari, Max will win 2024 and 2025, and then Ferrari may have an advantage for 2026.

Crystal ball? You act like Lewis wasn't well aware of all the Mercedes developments before this years car was announced....

Doubt he needs a crystal ball, as he probably had discussions in the background knowing what would happen moving forward. You watch, Newy will go to Ferrari. That won't be a coincidence.

Get yourselves popcorn 🍿 ready ok L.H is a British driver, however their is a costly price to have Sir L.H, Mr Ferrari not worried at all over L.H 😅

Adrian required !

Its as clear as day. The Merc design team, aero people and engineers are failing, badly. They need new blood and new thinking as the present Eng. team don't seem to have much of a clue. I predict a big clear out by Toto.

Leclerc isn't the second best Ferrari

Mercedes might bench him for the rest of season...