Last weekend, Lewis Hamilton won the Turkish Grand Prix and with it, the F1 Driver’s Championship for the seventh (!!!!) time, tying the venerated-but-comatose Michael Schumacher for the all-time record. Much has been said about the little twerp, especially by me, for the fact that he’s driving a car (factory Mercedes-AMG) which is hugely superior to most if not all of the other cars in Formula 1, and to a certain degree this is true. (Mercedes had actually clinched the F1 Team Championship title the race before.)
However: in Istanbul on Sunday, conditions were terrible. It had rained all night before, and to add to the drivers’ woes, the track had only been resurfaced a couple weeks prior, which meant that even dry it would have been slippery; add metric tons of water to the mix, and you get mayhem. Which is pretty much what happened. Nobody cared to race on slicks, when meant “wet” or “intermediate” tires were the order of the day, and all during the race, cars were sliding around and off the track like they were being driven by five-year-old boys and not by arguably the best drivers in the world. Even worse was that because the tires were wet-weather ones, they degraded very quickly when the track did dry out a bit. Ordinarily under those circumstances, you’re lucky to get ten to fifteen laps before the tread wears to such an extent that you’re in essence racing on slicks, on a soaking-wet track. This was not the case in Istanbul, because it drizzled on and off during the entire race, which meant that the alternate wet- and dry track gave the intermediate tires a few more laps’ life, to maybe twenty laps.
Hamilton changed off the wet tires on lap 8 — and then drove the last fifty laps on the same tires, winning by a huge margin because all the other drivers had to make two and sometimes three pit stops to change theirs. It was a drive of unbelievable virtuosity, and as much as I personally detest the little asshole, it was a drive worthy of a champion, the win and therefore the title richly deserved. And by the way, Valttieri Bottas (the other Mercedes driver), driving the same machinery, finished somewhere like fifteenth. So much for “equipment superiority”.
I told you all that so I could tell you this.
Hamiton’s seventh driver’s title has resulted in calls for him to be given a knighthood by the Queen — she doesn’t make the decision, by the way, some government flunkey or other does, I can’t be bothered to look it up as like most Americans I think the whole title thing is silly. Regardless, other sportsmen have been knighted before for their sporting success (F1’s Jackie Stewart and Stirling Moss, cricketer Ian Botham — more on him in another post), so it’s not an unusual thing for a sportsman to be thus recognized.
However, this is Lewis Hamilton we’re talking about, so of course there’s going to be a turd in the punchbowl. And this is it: many years ago, Lewis left the U.K. and took up residence in Monaco to escape Her Majesty’s onerous taxation (once again, not the old girl’s fault; she doesn’t makes the laws, she just signs the papers).
To the ever-censorious British public, who think that leaving Britain for this reason equates to near-criminal behavior, this is causing some problems, conceptually. On the one hand, he’s brilliant and deserves some social recognition, but on the other, he’s a reprehensible tax-dodger who’s being rewarded by the Crown despite his “disloyalty”.
Needless to say, I think the wealth-envious Brits are total idiots when it comes to this nonsense: taxes are an evil, evil form of theft: one should pay only as much as the law mandates, and not one fucking penny more. Avoiding paying taxes (as opposed to evading, or not paying any) is one’s fiscal responsibility, and tax loopholes (created, of course, by loathsome politicians) should be used to the utmost advantage without actually breaking the law. Tax accountants and -lawyers exist to know about and bring such loopholes (okay, exceptions) to their clients’ attention and save them money. That’s the beginning and the end of what I call the commonsense approach to paying taxes — but that’s not what the vast British (and huge swathes of the U.S.) public believes.
Thus, the quandary the Brits find themselves in is an exquisite one, as I stated above. And I find myself curiously conflicted: on the one hand I think Hamilton’s achievement is incredible, and worthy of recognition; but on the other, while the tax haven thing is irrelevant, the thought of this woke little BLM-supporting twerp becoming “Sir Lewis” sticks in my craw like a chicken bone.
Yes, agreed, but to be fair, both Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark also abandoned the UK due to taxation in the 60’s. The difference being, of course, that they at least carried themselves as gentlemen.
I’ve walked away from F1 this year. I’d become sickened by Hamilton’s rantings as well as the general state of the circus. Ugly cars with little connection to the cars (or more correctly described today as “appliances”) we drive today and drivers with a maturity level below that of a typical college fraternity – and that may be a generous description. The complaints of a 61 year old white boy to be sure, although the apparent extinction of gentlemanly behavior cannot be overstated.
Ok, early morning rant by an old guy is complete!
Freedom and Whiskey!
Well Said!
(another OG)
Is that a picture of the woke twerp? How did he manage to get outside dressed like that???
suddenly my torn jeans and ratty old shirt on a trip to the hardware store looks quite fancy.
Get woke, go broke. I used to like baseball, but when they started to take a knee for our National Anthem, I changed the channel. I could never get into NASCAR where lap 5 isn’t much different than lap whatever. Don’t these sports participants realize that their job is to distract us from the current events? Sometimes we need a break from the politics and wokeness of society. Oh well. If they’re not going to do their job and provide us with a distraction, then I’ll go find something else to do.
JQ
LOLOLOL
When I look at the photo of that guy, the first thing that pops into my head is “goofy fuck”.
A true stereotype for what’s wrong in the world today.
I’m not a racing expert, but it seems to me going 50 laps on tires that should maybe get you 20 is more luck than skill.
I’d give a lot of money to see that “goofy fuck” show up on the bus at Parris Island at 0100.
Please, no.
I had more than my share of retards on the Yellow Footprints, we don’t need any more obnoxious assholes that we can’t just shitcan for being useless .
There’s this myth surrounding the USMC that we sort out the shit and keep the best, and it’s just not true. We took anyone with a pulse from 05-09 ish. Probably worse now.
A comparison could be made between Lewis Hamilton and West Indian cricketer Viv Richards, aka Sir Vivien Richards, (insert a long row of post nominals).
A superb batsman and fielder, one of the greatest cricketers of all time, but an absolute pig of a man off the field.
Arrogant, ill-mannered and boorish does not even begin to describe him.
The likes of Hamilton are good examples that genius in one area does not mean sense – let alone genius – in other areas.
Knighthoods for sportsmen typically come on retirement from the sport or when the recipient can no longer compete at the highest level.
That said, if he were to win the British GP next year then it would be good PR for the new King William to knight him on the spot.
I think the dichotomy of Kim’s acceptance and rejection would be easily overcome if the man would just show some decorum. The Brits have long represented the gentlemanly bulldog persona. Look to their literary heroes, Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. Quirkiness, eccentricity and womanizing are easily forgiven by the masses if you’ll just not act like a spoiled child while doing it. A disservice to his status as one of the best drivers in history, Mr. Hamilton appears to be always clinging to everything but his driving ability to gain attention. Joining the cause de jour, dying his hair and many other acts that serve as a tantrum before the paparazzi. For example, put him in an Armani suit in the picture above and the spoiled brat becomes a sophisticated achiever. He gets all the due attention and doesn’t look like a douche. The few extra social media likes or comments on his “radical chic” attire aren’t justified by the perception that he hasn’t matched since mummy stopped laying out his clothes.
Do they still make Garanimals?
You are of course correct, he is both insufferably woke and a brilliant, once in a generation gifted driver.
As to the tax thing, here is an unedited, therefore long video of Kerry Packer who was at the time The richest man in Australia. The labour government of the time we’re having a review of Aussie tax law and ordered KP to front. It was a typical lefty show trial and the only bit of the whole enquire that was televised live.
Kerry was a very tough, uncompromising sort of guy, and was widely reviled, aussies like everywhere get suspicious of extreme wealth.
I took the day off work to watch this and it was a life changing experience for me.
Well worth the time…
https://youtu.be/xOLbbkC1qq0
Packer was a fascinating man. He inspired great loyalty. His helicopter pilot donated a kidney when KP got sick. He took up polo and had a heart attack while playing and was saved by a famous heart surgeon, Victor Chang who was at the game. KP later paid out of his own pocket to have defibrillators installed in every ambulance in NSW. As CEO of consolidated media he drew no salary, got all his income from dividends. He was a fearsome poker player who could afford to go after anyone. He used to get around in an old 7series beemer. It broke down one day and KP was sitting in a park waiting for someone to come and pick him up when he watched a bus load of special needs kids go into the park and play on the equipment. He paid for all of them and their families to go to Disneyland.
Very impressive man.
Nope nope nopey nope. That jumped up BLM woke entitled gimp does not deserve a Sir. Dress sense alone precludes that. Good grief.
During the mid-1970s at a weekend workshop, Irwin Schiff suggested reading the American tax code.
At that time, it was only a couple-three hundred pages, so I gave it a go.
I quickly realized it had very few tax laws.
Instead, it contained thousands of extremely-specific exclusions and exemptions:
* ‘a fishing-boat designed in the period 1956-61 and used to harvest during the months of June-November and stored at a marina with four-day a week management on-site and containing at least one of the following…’
* ‘a real property of between nine hundred forty and one thousand sixty acres used to winter stock such as cattle but not sheep and needing irrigation for less than six months in a calendar year and having an elevation between 2000ft and 3500ft and having…’
I realized the American tax code has very little to do with taxes, and a lot to do with ‘knowing the right people’.
Being exempt is almost as good as being king.
*****
The fellow in the photograph thinks he is ‘quite the pip’.
I think the brit royals could do better.
Which opinion carries more influence?
My, he’s a faggoty looking little prig, isn’t he.
BTW, Nick Faldo, he of golfing fame, has also been knighted.
Yes, luck had a lot to do with the win in Turkey – Louise took the chance that the on-again / off-again precip would allow him to stay on those worn full-wets without their self-destruction.
And, Yes, he does have remarkable car-control.
And, he is a bit of whatever term you may wish to use and not someone you’d want to have a pint with.
One of my childhood heroes died this year, Sir Sterling Moss. He was the epitome of the gentleman racer. He mostly drove British cars in a sense of loyalty. He was the most prominent driver not to have won the championship. I waded through two different lists of prominent people who had died this year, and he wasn’t listed in either.
.
So, they forgot him, or because he was an old white guy who merely did what he did well and always as a gentleman, he was worth being disappeared?
Was he the one who one time was watching whoever was second to him, calculated that he was gaining on him at about a car-length a lap, counted the remaining laps and did not risk his engine by speeding up, and won the race by one car length? He, like Mark Donahue and every Astronaut, proved that it wasn’t split-second reaction that won races, but split-second ANALYSIS.
Moss might have been the same one who, every time he rounded a particular corner, the image of the spectators there in the stands became stronger in his mind so after the race at a party he saw a woman and said, “Weren’t you in the stands at Turn X, about a third of the way up?”
She brushed him off, thinking that was a weird pickup line, until he said, “You were wearing X,” describing what she was wearing perfectly.
The “listers” probably dropped him for the unpardonable sin of winning the Tourist Trophy in ’61 and smoking in the process – talk about stretching a lead to an impressive number and kicking back for a “fag”.
If the Brits want to further degrade their honorifics, I guess it’s on them.
A Fellow of the the Royal Society or Knight of the Bath/Garter/WTF ever used to mean something.
Another rotten piece of shit.
This world almost isn’t fit any more.
The Brits don’t have an Empire anymore, this is what they’ve replaced it with. Oh and NHS.
Hamilton? Or handing out knightships to every first place winner?
If he were in the Army and did something that was comparably skilled and unexpected militarily, would he get the Victoria Cross?
Only if he exhibited Great Valour!