Formula One ( F1 )

I'm no Ocon fan, but being in 3rd and being spun out twice by other cars. Damn bad luck.

Great swim err drive by Albon so far.

Edit - Spoke to soon.

Fuck yes Vettel!!!

Watching that has totally fucked with my body clock.

So many good drives today, I had Verstappen, Hamilton and Ricciardo.
But Vettel and Sainz and Perez doing good was amazing.

Wasn't sure what to make of Verstappen's drive today. He's pretty great at spinning in the wet without causing damage but he seemed to lack the finesse to capitalise on the performance he had.

Great to see Vettel and Sainz on the podium with Lewis.

I guess Verstappen was win it or bin it.
He got away without the bin it , so that’s good.
Sainz is going to be interesting at Ferrari as I always rated him above Verstappen but Leclerc is a class act

Leclerc is a class act

Completely agree, but I'm in two minds as to respect his ability to take responsibility for when things go wrong, or feel sorry for him because he beats himself up way too much when he makes a mistake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFTmASGJRug

Young and passionate I think

I would’ve sworn much more

Yeah but that normally manifests itself in blaming outside factors, especially when looking at ultra-competitive types. He's clearly very confident in his ability so I'm sure it won't affect him too much, but listening to him beat the crap out of himself is quite strange when compared to how the rest of the field react

Surprised all the chat here is about Vettel (who got super lucky), Sainz and Perez and not the 7 time world champion who managed to win the race on 51 lap, bald, intermediate despite having a demonstrably worse car than others on the grid yesterday. Bottas managed 14th with the same car...

Still find it difficult to like him but fuck me if he isn't an incredible driver.

Bottas managed 14th with the same car...

Albeit a damaged one.

fuck me if he isn't an incredible driver.

This x 1,000. He started off with the expectation of being a generational talent and he has gone on to become the best ever in the sport. It would be amazing to see if he could do it in a lesser car to shut up the remaining critics out there.

Would disagree on Vettel's 'luck', following a close battle hoping to pick up the pieces isn't exactly luck. He had a great start and held good pace throughout. I was pretty happy that he got to share the podium with Hamilton getting his 7th WDC.

Hamilton's 7th WDC has been a foregone conclusion for most of the season, I'm not surprised at the lack of fanfare for it finally happening given all the associated discussions have been going on throughout the season. While he did well on his tyres (as did Perez), it looks like staying on the old tyres was the right move as those who moved to fresh intermediates suffered graining, struggled to clear it and lost pace relative to those that stayed on the same set.

I hope the bit about expecting praise for Hamilton racing with a worse car was a joke.

Still find it difficult to like him but fuck me if he isn't an incredible driver.

It's an odd one, personally, I just think he's pretty damn amazing, but so many just don't like him.

Now, for sure a lot of them it'll be subconscious racism (I'm sure not the case on here), but I just don't get why the non-racists also don't like him.

Team player, worked hard, came from relatively little, fights fair, owns up to his faults and tries to be a leading role model. I mean check out his reply to George Russell a couple of weeks ago on Twitter.

The man is a class act and an inspirational racing driver.

I'm a big Hamilton fan but i really didn't have much to say about yesterday's win. Blase but it was just another really good performance. Regarding Vettel i thought his third place was fairly exceptional given the season he's had and the competitiveness of the mid-field. He's also the person i was happiest to see sharing the moment with Lewis.

Could be wrong but did Lewis not question the tyre strategy and go against the initial calls from the team? Personally i don't think he gets enough credit for the feedback he gives and his confidence to question the strategies.

Yes that is certainly true. Before that he'd asked to come in to get fresh inters and the team told him to stay out. Afterwards the team, as you say, told him to come in and he said he was comfortable staying out. On the flipside, early in the race when everyone was switching to inters he said he wanted to stay on the wets and he stayed out for a few more laps until the team called him in for the switch.

The driver and pit wall have access to different information and balancing those and knowing when to overrule the other is definitely a key factor in success, and I agree Lewis does a good job of this. While Vettel may be the clearest example of this these days he's generally helped in that regard by what seems to be the Keystone Cops running the strategy department there.

It's an odd one, personally, I just think he's pretty damn amazing, but so many just don't like him.

May as well make it a hat-trick of disagreements here today ;)

I think there's a few obvious reasons why people don't like him (to reiterate, these are not reasons I have for disliking him).

• Racism, don't think there will be many arguments there. On top of the normal amounts of racism present these days, motorsport is very much a white-man's game.
  
• On a related note, he's probably the prime target for people venting at this year's 'We race as one' slogan for F1, as well as speaking up on the BLM movement
  
• Domination in the sport, reduces the spectacle and enjoyment for the fans. Same thing happened when Schumacher and Vettel were winning.
  
• Dodgy tax stuff, a favourite for people to complain about, nothing new in F1 where most drivers 'live' in Monaco.
  
• Veganism, silly reason to dislike someone, but a stance that many people hold.
  
• General putting his foot in his mouth on social media, the thing about telling his newphew(?) that it's wrong for boys to wear dresses or some such thing.
  
• He's a British sports star, the British have quite a strong tradition of being the worst critics of their sports stars.
  
  

While it's easy to list the reasons why he's disliked, I think it's also important to look at the flipside. Which of the current flock of drivers are actually 'liked' by the majority? Is there anyone other than Raikkonen & Ricciardo?

Personally I tend to flip-flop on my overall opinion on him. It's clear that he has a lot of respect for his fellow drivers which is great to see, but then he comes off with the usual 'tyres are dead', 'we really struggled with the car today' and chucking in fastest laps and running away with the championship.

He's undoubtedly one of the greats of all time, and I think it's a shame we don't get to see him having proper battles in the field anymore.

I think it's a shame we don't get to see him having proper battles in the field anymore.

That's not really something you can hold against Hamilton, surely?

The man is a class act and an inspirational racing driver.

He wasn't when he was young that's for sure but those days are a long time behind him. That said I think it's not unusual for a young person with rapid, earned, success to be arrogant. Jesus, even without success that applies. It's how they grow out of it and he's seemingly matured into as well rounded a human as you can be when you're insanely rich and famous.

Not at all, and it wasn't my intention to convey that. He's a great racer and I think everyone would like to see some more of the great wheel to wheel racing that he can provide

Can't say I really disagree with anyone on here!

It's getting closer, so my hope is that 2021 will be tighter between the teams (and while I'm at it, I'll wish for a pony!), and that 2022 will bring less formulaic racing.

I still think he's the best of the best, and like many others, think that tighter racing would be interesting.

Wasn't the tax thing partially debunked? I thought I read that he did pay tax on his UK earnings, and was in fact in the top 5000 UK tax payers? May be mis-remembering though.

Its not like there aren't other reasons to live in Monaco over Stevenage...