F1 2021 – spoilers here

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:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/when-formula-one-titles-are-decided-with-a-crash-8347643.html%3famp

An interesting compilation of significant collisions here too:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/31855567/the-track-collisions-defined-some-f1-iconic-rivalries%3fplatform=amp

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

Lewis Hamilton has been summoned to the stewards for an alleged failure to respect double waved yellow flags and lights during FP3#SaudiArabianGP ?? #F1https://t.co/ZjyVvhwLYJ

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 4, 2021

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

Phew!! No penalty

Re: permutations, am I right in thinking that if Hamilton wins the next two then the championship is his- or does he need a point or two for fastest lap too? Assuming that Verstappen is second of course, which he most likely will be

Re: permutations, am I right in thinking that if Hamilton wins the next two then the championship is his

Yes. There are massive permutations. The simplest thing is that if either Verstappen or Hamilton wins both races, they will be champ.

Strong possibility that the sessions get disrupted if someone ends up in a wall…

can’t help thinking Lewis is being forensically examined in everything he does so someone can make sure MV wins the championship.

come off it.  Hamilton gets an easy ride as ever.  guilty of ignoring waved yellows and also impeding another driver with no penalty.  You would be calling foul If Verstappen had got away so lightly

A couple of changes of underclothes for Carlos Sainz I think…

Edit, protest period of Hamilton’s no further action has been extended…

guilty of ignoring waved yellows

Guilty in the court of TJ, maybe. Meanwhile, back in the real world:

“on-board video clearly shows there was no yellow flag displayed, no yellow lights were displayed to that driver and the yellow warning light was not visible on the driver’s steering wheel”

It’s difficult to ignore things that didn’t exist.

Whoops

Boom!

that was just a matter of time

Bahahahahahaaaaaa.

Great lap, til it wasn’t.

Hahaha.
For once, RB can’t do any whinging about that one.

Yep – took a lot of risks on that lap.

I think Red Bulk will now be appealing the lack of penalty for Lewis.