Hamilton’s ‘secret’ deal with Prodrive goes public
It was agreed last summer, but long-time World Rally Championship powerhouse Prodrive has only in the past week disclosed its deal with Lewis Hamilton to run the Mercedes Formula 1 star’s X44 team in the inaugural season of Extreme E.
Prodrive founder and chairman David Richards, who attended the maiden Desert X-prix in
Saudi Arabia last weekend, has known the Hamilton family for the better part of 25 years, from when his son used to compete alongside the seven-time world champion in karting. At that time, Prodrive was winning three successive WRC manufacturers’ titles for Subaru.
“I’ve always kept in touch with him, and the families keep in touch,” Richards told Autosport. “Lewis actually said, ‘I’ve always wanted to work with you guys at some point in time’.”
The partnership was initiated after Prodrive expressed its interest in entering Extreme E. Series co-founder Alejandro
Agag alerted it to Hamilton, who desired a collaboration with an experienced off-road squad.
This tie-up long pre-dates Hamilton’s recent amicable split with long-time friend and associate, 1999 British Formula 3 champion Marc Hynes, who previously ran the Project Forty Four business that presides over the Extreme E entry. That set-up is now led by Penni Thow. The Canadian’s staggering career includes plucking Justin Bieber from being an amateur performer on Youtube to turning him into one of the biggest music stars on the planet.
The deal with Prodrive also eased Hamilton’s bid to sign Sebastien Loeb to X44. The nine-time World Rally champion is contracted to Prodrive through the Bahrain Raid Xtreme BRX1 programme that made its debut on the Dakar Rally earlier this year but ended in retirement.
Loeb’s female co-driver
Cristina Gutierrez was scouted by Richards after impressing the Motorsport UK chairman during a run on the Andalucia Rally.
When asked why Prodrive had decided to go public with the deal just three days before the opening day of the Extreme E round in Alula, Richards said: “It was just to clarify things really. There was no strange issue to it. Maybe a bit of ego from our side, that we hadn’t been recognised in the relationship. And so we said, ‘Let’s just clarify the situation that our guys are running the programme’.”