Former Mercedes CEO Nick Fry has claimed the company board wasn’t interested in signing Lewis Hamilton for 2013.
Earlier this week, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko revealed he pushed the German manufacturer to take on the Briton as Michael Schumacher’s replacement in addition to the efforts of non-executive chairman Niki Lauda.
However, while senior figures within the F1 team were keen to take on the then-McLaren driver, Mercedes directors had eyes elsewhere.
“Initially I couldn’t get Mercedes on board with hiring Lewis,” Fry wrote in his new book ‘Survive. Drive. Win’, with the quotes published by RaceFans.
“More than once we were sent back to come up with other ideas.
“For whatever reason, we were told to look at people like Nick Heidfeld again, who was super-keen to get the seat, and repeatedly text me with photos of himself, his family and his dog in a futile bid to pique my interest.”
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At the time, Heidfeld was looking to return to F1 having left Renault mid-way through the 2012 season, while other names including Paul di Resta, who had won the DTM title with Mercedes and even Jacques Villeneuve were touted.
As we know, however, the bidding of Lauda and Fry eventually paid off and Hamilton did sign for the Brackley-based outfit for 2013, going on to score four titles in the past five years with his sixth in total getting ever closer in 2019.
Fry’s book ‘Survive. Drive. Win’ is released on October 8.