Couldn’t care less. IMO we should still be in the EU and able to move and live freely anywhere in Europe.
Apart from Monaco not being in the EU….
Can’t blame Lando, I’d do the same as him in that position.
For 23 weeks of the year they will be away racing, add in the 90 day rule here, sponsor visits and like Irvine he’ll spend little time in Monaco…
Do we have any thoughts on how the coming weekend may unfold?
I won't be surprised if MV takes LH out, and after Karen goes crying to the stewards it's a racing incident.
BTW anyone bovvered about Lando moving to Monaco? At least he’s openly admitting it’s for financial reasons rather than making up some baloney about it being a good base for European races or whatever
It's legal so it comes down purely to morals and it slightly grates on me that the people who can pay uk tax and still bank millions and live a very luxurious lifestyle instead bugger off and pay as little tax as possible as soon as they can.
Specifically to Lando it's also in bad taste after doing his "thank you key workers" schtick a few races back.
Anyway. Got that off my chest finally! On with the racing
I won’t be surprised if MV takes LH out,
I think a lot of people are expecting this, myself included!
It would be an incredibly unsatisfying way to end what has otherwise been an amazing season
Do we have any thoughts on how the coming weekend may unfold?
In my head... Redbull are quick and Max take the front row, but have rear wing problems again and lash it together after Q3 with no penalty, much to totos annoyance. From the start Max builds a 10s lead then just after his first stop his rear wing flap fails catastrophically causing him to retire (unhurt) and both mercs pit under the safety car to give them a 1-2 finish. Horner blames Renault, Pirelli and Merc for the rear wing failure.
It’s legal so it comes down purely to morals and it slightly grates on me that the people who can pay uk tax and still bank millions and live a very luxurious lifestyle instead bugger off and pay as little tax as possible as soon as they can.
I would absolutely get the heck put of this country and minimise the sheckles I contribute to this government's coffers if I could.
You need serious money to own property in Monaco. Just read that £1million will get approx 15m2.
Don't mind as long as they no longer refer to him as British driver, (in the same way that I hate Connery and Connelly being referred to as Scottish, they're not they're settled yanks who came from Scotland, to seem less of a dick I also believe that migrants to UK be referred to as British and not Syrian or whatever, do your bit here and you're one of us)
Do we have any thoughts on how the coming weekend may unfold?
Horner and Wolff will spend the weekend sniping and moaning at each other. The track will turn out to favour one team over the other based on how hard the front or rear tyres are loaded. Depending on which team that is, either Hamilton or Verstappen will dominate. The question is whether their teammate finishes second or not. If Hamilton wins with Bottas second, that would make him a slight favourite for the championship. If Verstappen wins with Perez second, that would make him a strong favourite. If I had to put money on it, I'd bet that Hamilton wins with Verstappen second.
BTW anyone bovvered about Lando moving to Monaco?
Well, if foreigners moving to the U.K., taking jobs, and pushing up housing costs is bad then surely a Brit moving overseas and taking his money with him must be a good thing.
Apart from Monaco not being in the EU….
Hey don't go wrecking my point with simple things like facts.
BTW anyone bovvered about Lando moving to Monaco?
Uk is a shit show at the moment, lets face it we'd all move there if we could.
Do we have any thoughts on how the coming weekend may unfold?
Fast circuit with a long straight suggests rear wings might be in the spotlight again.
Obviously it’s nonetheless tough to predict, and I wonder if front tyre stresses may again play a role, but I’d put a few quid on us going to Abu Dhabi with Lewis either one or two points behind Max in the championship. The pressure is on Hamilton and he has one simple objective, which is to win the race. That’s when he’s at his best, and the car seems to be coming on song, so even if he’s off the pace in Q1 I’d back him for pole and a lights-to-flag win unless something wild happens. Valtteri’s brief will be to make sure that Max doesn’t get a late pit window to make it a two point gap with fastest lap, though whether he can fulfil it is another matter entirely…
As for the rest of the field, who knows and who cares! 😂
Is there a rule about how far you have to stay behind the car in front during a safety car?
Just thinking, say the order is LH, VB, MV, SP when the safety car comes in. LH goes for it straight away, but then VB dithers about for ages and crosses the line (and only once he does that can MV attempt an overtake) say 10 seconds after LH, who is long gone by then. I've never really seen this done.
Is there a rule about how far you have to stay behind the car in front during a safety car?
Yeah there is a rule for this very reason.
Yeah you can't bimble. Can't remember the rules but there have been issues in the past
You have to stay within 10 car lengths of the car in front during a safety car
You have to stay within 10 car lengths of the car in front during a safety car
So, whats the penalty for failing to do so, I wonder.....? They'd be hard-pressed to penalize LH for something VB does in Andrew's scenario...
(Could you imagine the epic whinging from Red Bull!)
I’m absolutely confident Mercedes won’t stoop to that. This isn’t Flav we’re talking about.
Good question! I've never seen a penalty applied, but I have seen some drivers pushing their luck on occasion
They’d be hard-pressed to penalize LH for something VB does in Andrew’s scenario…
It’s a team game though mind. I’d expect massive penalties for all involved if that’s how a championship was won (like, all excluded from the full championship for example)
Re the Lando to Monaco thing.
Lewis was in one of the Saturday paper supplements talking about his pride to be a nrit and based in Brit land. Literally the following day one of the Sunday supporters had Lewis talking about his move yo Monaco for tax reasons.
Literally the following day one of the Sunday supporters had Lewis talking about his move yo Monaco for tax reasons.
When LH bought himself a private jet, he landed it in Isle of Man first, specifically to get around the tax implications:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/06/lewis-hamilton-avoided-taxes-jet-isle-of-man-scheme-paradise-papers
(OK, to be fair, he did it via advisors, it's not something of his own devising but still...)
That said, I agree with the comments previously - if I had the money I'd be straight out of this country.
I wonder how much money is being put on Max to nerf Lewis at the first corner, definitely worth a fiver I reckon 😁
It's all relative though isn't it? They earn loads more than us, try and mitigate their liabilities and I expect the numbers are huge. Who here would agree to pay more than they could or wouldn't take action to minimise their outgoings on their current salaries? I don't hear many people saying 'Yeah I chucked another £10k at HMRC as it's the right thing to do...'...
Who here would agree to pay more than they could or wouldn’t take action to minimise their outgoings on their current salaries? I don’t hear many people saying ‘Yeah I chucked another £10k at HMRC as it’s the right thing to do…’…
That really. If it's legal then do it. If you don't like it moan about the law, not the people doing it.
Mercedes and Hamilton criticised for advertising Kingspan
Hamilton has been supportive of the Grenfell Tower survivors, Mercedes have put the makers of the cladding on the car for the Saudi Race.
I saw this, def a bit of an own goal- I'm thinking Hamilton might well put his foot down about this and ask for the adverising to be removed from his car...
I'm not sure it's totally fair reporting re kingspan. From what I read, their k15 product only accounted for 5% of the cladding and was used as a substitute product without their knowledge.
Edit: although having read that article above, the attitude of the directors at kingspan stinks.
Foreshadowing.
Here's 4 occasions when drivers have gone for the 'tactical shunt' option when in contention for the world championship:
An interesting compilation of significant collisions here too:
Yeah Kingspan's corporate governance is shocking and it's a massive own goal by Merc to carry their brand - but I expect they'll only make the change if the reaction looks like damaging the MB brand. Let's be honest here - if F1 teams had a deep social conscience they wouldn't even be in Saudi this weekend.
Looking at the first laps of Jeddah we'll have plenty of Sunday afternoon nap-time in between the red-flags and the race procession! 🙂
Let’s be honest here – if F1 teams had a deep social conscience they wouldn’t even be in Saudi this weekend.
They do make noises about trying to be a positive force though.
Vettel did this:
https://www.planetf1.com/news/sebastian-vettel-karting-event-jeddah/
Hamilton was on about wearing his rainbow helmet again to promote inclusivity for LGBTQ+ (of which Saudi has a horrendous record).
I doubt a weekend of racing will change much - fairly sure Saudi Arabia wouldn't be hosting it if they thought it would. I can't decide if you should go to places like that and "raise awareness" of the issues or boycott the country until it gets its human rights act in order. The risk of the latter is that the country becomes ever more isolated and extreme.
It's a good question. I remember lots of boycotting of South Africa going on during apartheid, and that came to an end, but I have no idea if one caused the other
😳😳
Just watching FP2 - the speeds are mega and there’s going to be a mighty crash if someone gets it wrong in traffic!
I watched a virtual lap of the circuit yesterday & thought someone would probably have an off at turns 22/23. I've just watched Leclercs crash... happened at that corner. Ooft.
Yep, no such thing as a little crash on this circuit it seems!
I can’t decide if you should go to places like that and “raise awareness” of the issues or boycott the country until it gets its human rights act in order. The risk of the latter is that the country becomes ever more isolated and extreme.
I think the idea is that going there can throw a spotlight on the various issues and give the rulers a chance to change. If they don't then the GP can be taken away. South Africa for example lost it's race after 1984 but then returned in 1993 after Apartheid ended. I doubt it had any real effect on it's own but lots of small things can add up.
I love the fact that the teams are all carrying Frank Williams name on the cars.
I like that - I suspect that won't be the case when, say, Briatore shuffles off this mortal coil.
From the Frank RIP thread, I've been pondering this -
Except he* wouldn’t have been driving for Williams the year after he won the title because of the teams long standing policy of not retaining world champions…
Even at their peak the Williams team never had the money to pay the kind of wages a defending champion would have been looking for.
*Senna
Jones - retired
Rosberg - stayed
Piquet - followed Honda turbos to Lotus to avoid the atmo Williams of '88
Mansell - ran away from Prost
Prost - ran away from Senna
Hill - booted early doors based on a dismal '95
Villeneuve - stayed
Jones, Rosberg and Hill were a plucked from relative obscurity - Piquet moved to Williams BECAUSE of the money! 🙂 The only one, I think, for whom money was ostensibly the reason was Our Nige, who agreed a deal for '93 and '94 then asked for money when prompted to sign the contract with Prost in the other car.
I don’t think the Saudi rulers will care what helmet design Hamilton or any of the drivers wear let alone what it is supposed to represent. It’s all just a bit of virtue signalling. F1 is all about the cash
This.
Let's not pretend that any of these very wealthy drivers care enough about the Saudi regime that they'd let it interfere with their income and lifestyle
It's not looking good for Lewis, he up before the stewards for ignoring double waved yellows in FP3
I can’t help thinking Lewis is being forensically examined in everything he does so someone can make sure MV wins the championship.
Fair enough if he’s done the crime but it’s in practice - it should not determine the race at all. If it’s done in quali it’s clear someone is trying to get their best lap but there’s no advantage in doing it in practice.
Fair enough if he’s done the crime but it’s in practice –
Yellow flags are about safety, so they apply as much to practice as they do qualifying. However, that said, this:
I can’t help thinking Lewis is being forensically examined in everything he does so someone can make sure MV wins the championship
Is probably true! They certainly changed the aero rules for this season to benefit Red Bull's low rake design
