Coulthard: Of course Hamilton will win with Mercedes

F1 grand prix winner and BBC Sport F1 co-commentator and pundit David Coulthard has said he has no doubt Lewis Hamilton will succeed with Mercedes.

Hamilton made the decision to leave McLaren at the end of last season and while some have questioned the wisdom of the move, DC believes it will be 'the making of him as a man and a racer'.

"Yes, course he can win," Coulthard told Crash.net during this week's London press launch for the BBC's 2013 F1 coverage. "That team has wins in its DNA and won the championship in its Brawn guise with Jenson [Button], Lewis' old team-mate.

"I think it is a great thing for F1 that we have someone of Lewis' talent heading off to another team. It gives us four British drivers across four different teams. I think it is inevitable in life that you will move on at a certain point.

"He had been with McLaren for 13 years - starting as a young driver through to winning his championship there. It will be the making of him as a man and a racer because you do need different experiences and environments to really develop as an individual. He can re-set everything going to Mercedes because he is not Lewis the teenager, happy to be there and desperate to be a F1 driver. He is an existing world champion and goes there as such and will build new relationships. They see the Lewis of today rather than the Lewis as a young kid who should be grateful for the opportunity."

Coulthard meanwhile was evasive when asked how he sees things shaping up in Australia next week for the season opener.

"It is always unpredictable in Melbourne. We do get some mixed results there. But that said, it is not a slow car that wins the race," he continued. "It does look like from winter testing that it is a bit of a mix match depending on what criteria the teams ran the cars too - whether it be with low fuel or which particular tyres.

"But when we get to Melbourne it all gets simplified. They have to run one of two compounds of tyres, they will always run the fastest of those tyres in qualifying and with low fuel and they will have to stick all the fuel in for the race. We will have a much better picture - just saying all the obvious - come Sunday night. But I would be surprised if is not one of the big teams that have either won a championship or won a grand prix before that is doing exactly the same in Melbourne."

STOP PRESS: To read more about what David Coulthard thinks about the coming F1 2013 season, CLICK HERE.