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Formula One

But my thing is, Vettel, Kim's, Gios, LeClerc, Ocon, Bottas or Alonsos. None of these families were particularly wealthy. 3 of which are former world champions. So to put lewis on this pedi stool is in my opinion wrong. His dad did graft yes, but so did many other families to get their sons to f1. I don't deny there are pay drivers. But F1 is more than Hamilton and Verstappen.
 
Tibble said:
None of these families were particularly wealthy. 3 of which are former world champions. So to put lewis on this pedi stool is in my opinion wrong.
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Nor was Hamiltons, and all of these drivers have had the support of a sponsor or team who have employed them. If they didn't they wouldn't have been world champions either.

Hamilton has had support and opportunity because of his skills, he hasn't got his skills and opportunity because of initial financial support.

This is a really bizarre line of thought, not sure what it's trying to achieve.
 
WillPS said:
I'd care a lot more if he paid tax.
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Yeah, its awful Max has just brought his own private jet, and is living in Monaco.

He should stick to commercial flights, and stay in the Netherlands.:p

If you look at the taxes Lewis pays, he pays a lot more than most of us do (Its over a million a year apparently). I really don't understand why Lewis gets so much stick for his personal life. He is doing a lot more good than bad.

Max does some bad moves but he also does some brilliant moves. He should of got punished for pushing Lewis off the track, it was a professional foul to use a footballing term. I cant think of a reason why they did not punish him, or at least give him a warning for it. Maybe the felt Lewis needed to stay on the track, and undercut him like Perez did to Bottas? The fact that Max managed to keep Lewis behind so long compared to the rest of the field shows what a fast driver he is, and the fact Lewis got past him, shows why he is a World Champion. The fact that Max was so aggressive in his defence is what made the race more exciting, if he has just let Lewis past it would be no fun. Lewis had to work hard to get past, and that is what I want to see, Overtake earnt on the track. But I don't want to go back to the days of drivers deliberately taking each other out to win so there needs to be something there, and its tough for F1.

I think this is a great quote, which sums up Verstappens current driving style.
“I think there is a balance ... I don’t ever try to be aggressive to endanger anyone. I drive aggressively because my car is not fast enough at times and I have to push and be aggressive.”
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Its easy to feel the FIA were hard on Mercedes, but they were hard on Aston Martin earlier this season, they were hard on Ferrari a few seasons ago, making Ferrari lose a lot of engine performance and handing Mercedes another championship.

If Ferrari, McLaren, and Apline improve their cars, and get in to the top fight mix with Mercedes and RedBull, Max could be in for a shock, as I am sure the likes of Leclerc, Russell, Ocon, and Lando will not be as gentle as Lewis is.

Lewis drive through the field has had some people calling for reverse grids. I want the fastest car and the fastest driver to win. Yes, I want the races to be exciting and interesting to, but before the race you have Qual, which puts the cars on to the gird in order of how fast they are, so the fastest cars tend to be at the front and the slowest cars at the back. So there should not be much overtaking. But lets not try and force additional overtaking by adding gimmicks like reverse grids. Parc Ferme is a nice gimmick, in that it makes you have to balance the car, focus to much on Qual and lose race pace, focus to much on race pace, and lose qual pace. It can cause cars to have slightly different performances in Qual and Race, and therefore introduce the possibility of overtaking.
 
Rojo said:
I thought Max's weaving was dangerous and just off the back of his pushing Hamilton wide was risking a penalty. He may still yet get one once the FIA work out how to download a video. That will be an interesting watch.
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It is rather convenient how that footage was not available at the time (and still is not available, publicly at least). You think of all the different camera angles and onboard footage we get of almost everything over a race weekend, yet this one bit of key footage is nowhere to be seen.

No doubt there is a logical explanation, but it does seem strange. Maybe Dr Marco has hacked in and stolen the footage (I do not really think that by the way, although can you imagine his and Horner's reactions had it been the other way round).
 
IanB said:
If you look at the taxes Lewis pays, he pays a lot more than most of us do (Its over a million a year apparently). I really don't understand why Lewis gets so much stick for his personal life. He is doing a lot more good than bad.
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"over a million a year" is not a suitable amount of tax for somebody who is paid £2m PER RACE by Mercedes, leave alone all his legion of other commercial agreements.

It's a bloody disgrace.

And no it has nothing to do with the colour of his skin, but yeah cool to infer people are racists because they have the gall to call someone out for straight forward tax avoidance and hypocrisy.
 
I agree that it is great to see hard racing. But he took far too much speed in to the corner, did not make the corner, and therefore gained a lasting advantage. If he had braked earlier and attempted to make the corner, he would likely have been passed.

It's amusing, as that is the corner that the corner where track limits were being strictly enforced throughout qualifying.

I suppose at least a marker has been laid down now, so both drivers know what is permissible in the last three races. Although a result of runnung wide in Qatar looks like it will be sending you in to the wall!
 
It has been confirmed Giovinazzi will not be retaining his seat at the end of the 2021 season.



He will be replaced by Guanyu Zhou.
 
Nice to see a rookie getting a chance, it's a shame Piastri continues to be overlooked tho.

I'd really love it if Ferrari or Renault nail the engine giving the non-RB-and-Merc customers a fighting chance at the title next year.
 


Well Mercedes look like they have decided they want to do their talking in the courtroom as well as on track :p RedBull would of done the same as well, as would Ferrari or McLaren.

I hope they do decide it can be investigated again, so it can be settled one way or another with all the information available. If there is a punishment, no one can moan if it happens in the last race and a penalty decides the championship. If there is not a penalty, both drivers know what they can do.

If it happens again in a race, I would like a first time warning for the driver, and if it happens a second time, then you need to give the position up, and take a penalty. Allows the drivers to get their elbows out a little, but stops them doing it every lap.

I don't think it will be an issue though, I think Lewis is going to easy qual on Pole, and win the race unless RedBull have something up their sleeves.
 
WillPS said:
"over a million a year" is not a suitable amount of tax for somebody who is paid £2m PER RACE by Mercedes, leave alone all his legion of other commercial agreements.

It's a bloody disgrace.

And no it has nothing to do with the colour of his skin, but yeah cool to infer people are racists because they have the gall to call someone out for straight forward tax avoidance and hypocrisy.
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He doesn't live here, he doesn't earn 2m a race here. He earns money across the world and pays taxes where he earns and lives. He is one of the top few thousand tax contributors in the UK but certainly isn't one of the top few thousand earners here. He pays tax in 9 countries.

People who get upset about this are often the same people who get upset by forigners coming here and earning money but paying a portion of their tax elsewhere as if they are ripping the UK off too. We can't have it both ways.

He also gives tens of millions to charity, most recently 20m setting up his own foundation. What a scumbag.

The insinuation of racism was in response to questioning why he has such a hard time in general, not here, not aimed at any poster. Indivuduals may have their reasons they feel are valid, but I think you'd have to be willfully blind to not see a link between his race and the collective hatred he gets.
 
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He chooses to be notionally domiciled in a nation where the taxation he is expected to pay is minute and the amount of support he is expected to provide the poor is basically zero (because poverty isn't a thing in Monaco).

He also chooses to drive under a British flag and make a big deal about how hard a time he and his family had growing up.

Charity starts at home.
 
Yeah Max wasn't trying to make that corner but the footage isn't the smoking gun everyone expected. The moaning from Horner the other way round would have been unbearable :D

I think RB will have the advantage at Qatar but the last two tracks are Merc tracks. Surely RB must have an engine upgrade if they are to get anywhere near Mercedes.

Hopefully for the neutrals the cars end up at similar pace and we get a crazy end to the season.
 
If Ham choses to live in Monaco then thats down to him, he does pay tax in the UK, maybe not as much as other sports personalities that live here but fair play to him, there are others that pay no tax and actively look to cheat it out.

I will be interested to see what happens from his report, he has put up £20M to action outcomes from it

I am surprised he doesn't have his own karting school like many other drivers, I would have thought it would be a good way to get young diverse drivers into the lower karting levels. But I guess like the report, you can only make those positions available. If people don't want to fill them then you cant force them to
 
It's entirely his right and his choice, and I'm not inferring he is doing anything illegal.

I am saying that actively avoiding tax on this scale does render any complaint the individual has about social justice and morality seem rather hypocritical.

See also mouthing off about the environment while wearing a shirt emblazoned with the logo of an oil mining company, and a company engaged in fracking activities.

He's within his right to do all this, but in terms of Lewis Hamilton the person it's my judgement that these are poor behaviours. He's also a massive sulker which doesn't help.

None of this stops him being a fantastic driver which he absolutely is, and last weekend alone would prove that beyond any doubt but the sycophancy about him as a person, his "journey" and his "impact" I find absolutely unbearable.
 
I do find it funny he said about everyone going vegan to help the planet then takes a private jet to each race and is sponsored by petronas

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the new evidence from Mercedes about the Verstappen incident

either way it'll be a good end to the season
 
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