Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Leon Retro]

We have a british world champion and that is we would be celebrating, everything is scemantics.

well done Lewis and McLaren!

If being born in Britain - made everyone likeable, it'd be the happiest place in the world.

I'm not going to be blindly patriotic.

Lewis doesn't want to pay tax. That is a big issue for a lot of people. He makes millions - but doesn't want to pay his dues to the country.

He should be the last one moaning about tax. He could pay tax - and still be swimming in cash.

Being a tax exile makes Lewis very unlikable in my eyes. It really is a very unfortunate way for him to conduct himself.

[Richard.John]

For F1 drivers though they may spend little time in the country of birth yet have to pay 40% tax plus NI as well if they officially live there. You can't blame him for trying to reduce his tax bill.

[Roddie]

We need to see Lewis in an under performing car to see how good he really is.

Mclaren have delivered a great car these last two seasons, and who's to say Kubica or another wouldn't have achieved the same result - I know Alonso was at Mclaren for one season, but as time passes more and more information is trickling out about how bad his time was there, and the struggles he was up against.

At the moment Lewis has one of the most powerful/competitive teams fully focused around him - I could list 5-6 drivers who would look great with that kind of package - It's certainly something that should be considered when assessing Lewis.

I think he's proved his worth at McLaren after outpacing both his teammates (one being a double world-champion) and this year he's also beaten the Ferrari drivers. I think maybe people should be questioning whether Kovalainen and Raikkonen should be where they are after underperforming in this year's best cars.

[Shez]

Roddie, do you honestly think Kovvi has been getting the same treatment as Lewis?

Come on, you know more about F1 than that.

Agree about Kimi though, he's been very poor. His head dropped, and he appeared to be just going through the motions.

[Kieran76]

If being born in Britain - made everyone likeable, it'd be the happiest place in the world.

I'm not going to be blindly patriotic.

Lewis doesn't want to pay tax. That is a big issue for a lot of people. He makes millions - but doesn't want to pay his dues to the country.

He should be the last one moaning about tax. He could pay tax - and still be swimming in cash.

Being a tax exile makes Lewis very unlikable in my eyes. It really is a very unfortunate way for him to conduct himself.

I do not like the idea of people getting out of paying tax, but to single out Hamilton is unfair. Button and DC both live in Monaco, as do a lot of other F1 drivers.

[Matt]

LOL. If you had the choice of living here or Monaco, where would you live! Seriously, if I was making millions, I'd move abroad. Given what your tax money is spent on, I'd prefer giving it to a worthwhile charity rather than funding a new Chav tattoo.

[Richard.John]

Another interesting read. What is required of you if you want to host a race? Bernie vs Montreal. Correspondence link at bottom of article.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72152

[Alastair]

oh dear oh dear.



We've already discussed the rear wings but look at the front! The actual car looks great, the wings look daft. So long as they overtake though I don't care.

[Richard.John]

That looks nasty. The Williams is nicer. The wings should match, either both narrow or wide. Front looks like a mobile broom.

[sharky_ob]

OMG that looks ridiculous!

Unflatering angle maybe

[Richard.John]

Even worse. Pass the sick bag. The front wing is clearly ridiculous.

[Senna]

Ugh. Horrible.

Looks almost like an F3 car.

Better be successful in helping overtaking, that's all I can say.

[abigsmurf]

that tiny rear wing looks silly.

I'm not even sure it's the right approach. They need to lessen the advantage acceleration gives the top cars and give cars more places they can over take. Long straights after slow turns rather than lots of tiny straights where bad cornering doesn't matter if your engine means you keep out accelerating people who take fast turns. They need to look at the track layouts which have been designed to keep slowing people down but have only succeeded in increasing the gap between various cars' performance whilst removing most of the overtaking.

[Alastair]

The slicks though, look at the slicks

[Duddyroar]

I'm not a fan of the look, TBH. And its strikes me as ironic that they're putting these measures in place to make racing more exciting after two of the cloest and most engaging seaons in recent memory. Ok, so it was just a case of two or three teams running away with the championship, but does anyone honestly think these rule changes are going to help the lesser squads challenge for honours? I doubt it.

And that front wing is going to result in some punishing smashes going into turn one - we see enough cases of drivers clipping each other with their front wings now, just imagine how many times you'll see it with THAT beast on the front of the car.