Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren for Mercedes - Report

Lewis Hamilton is set to leave McLaren to join Mercedes, reports the Guardian.

Mercedes is expected to make an announcement on Friday. The deal is worth £15m a year and negotiated by Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment which also manages David Beckham.

I hope Lewis does well with his new team! I will always root for him wherever he goes.

From Guardian:

Lewis Hamilton will walk out on McLaren, the Formula One team who have nurtured his extraordinary talent for more than half of his lifetime, and sign for Mercedes, the German car giant is expected to announce later on Friday.

Contrary to widespread speculation that the 27-year-old Hamilton was about to re-sign for McLaren, the team he joined as a 13-year-old and with whom he won the world championship in 2008, the fastest and most gifted driver of his generation has decided to join Mercedes, despite the fact that they have won only one championship race this season and languish in mid-table in the constructors' title race.

Mercedes are expected to announce that seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher will quit the team at the end of the season in November, making room for Hamilton's sensational switch, a move that will reverberate through the Formula One paddock for the remainder of this season.

Hamilton will sign for Mercedes on a three-year deal worth £15m a year. The irony of that is that it is not significantly more than Hamilton is being paid at the moment. He is coming to the end of a five-year deal that has been repeatedly reported as being worth £75m, or £15m a year, but which in fact is worth about £13m-£14m per annum.