Lewis Hamilton has been warned by Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren team principal, that leaving them for Mercedes is a mistake.
Mercedes confirmed yesterday that Hamilton would be joining them on a three-year deal from the start of the 2013 season, ending a 14-year association with McLaren.
Hamilton will replace Michael Schumacher at the German team, with Mexican driver Sergio Perez – currently with Sauber – stepping in for the Briton at McLaren.
Whitmarsh believes the switch makes it less likely Hamilton will achieve his ambition of matching his hero Ayrton Senna and becoming a three-time world champion.
"Mercedes is a great partner of ours and they are a great team," Whitmarsh said. "But for anyone leaving McLaren, and he wants to win, I think that's a mistake because I have faith and belief in this team.
"Whether you measure it over the last four races, four years or 40 years, we're a fantastic team, so I would say to any driver who wanted to win, 'Come and join McLaren and aspire to join McLaren'. I wouldn't advise anyone to leave McLaren if they want to win, but I've got to respect Lewis' decision and really wish him well."
Mercedes have won one of 52 grands prix since taking over Brawn, the champions in 2009. McLaren have won 16 over the same period.
Whitmarsh is adamant McLaren did everything in their power to keep hold of the 2008 world champion, although their initial offer is believed to have represented a pay cut on his current salary.
Whitmarsh added: "We made a very big financial offer, bigger than I believe any [other] driver is enjoying.
"He rang me two days ago, from Asia, and I believe I was the first person he told. We had a long conversation, a warm conversation. In the end, you need to make a decision and move on."
Aside from a reported £15m-per-year salary and greater freedom with image rights and sponsorship appearances, Hamilton is still chasing multiple world titles.
Hamilton said: "I am very excited to begin a new chapter racing for Mercedes.
"I believe that I can help steer the Silver Arrows to the top and achieve our joint ambitions of winning the world championships."
Schumacher, the 43-year-old seven-times champion, now appears on the brink of retirement for a second time after a tough three years with Mercedes, epitomised by Sunday's crash in Singapore.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article