HA, this is funny. The roads minister of Victoria in Australia has called F1 driver Lewis Hamilton a "d***head" for getting stopped for improper use of his vehicle on the roads of Melbourne. Hamilton was arrested on Friday evening and is expected to be charged with improper use of a vehicle after being caught wheelspinning his Mercedes road car. Minister Tim Pallas was speaking while launching the new "Don't Be a D****head" road safety campaign. Asked whether Lewis Hamilton met that description, he said: "OK, I'll say it. He's a d***head." After the incident Hamilton admitted: "I was driving in an over-exuberant manner and, as a result, was stopped by the police. What I did was silly, and I want to apologise for it." However Australian driver Mark Webber has defended his fellow competitor, saying his homeland had become a nanny state, with ridiculous parking and speeding rules. http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/248519/
Silly for the Minister to do this. LH made a mistake. He didnt hurt anyone at all. Who hasnt done a similar thing.
A$$_OLE Minister Doesn't do anything about Racist beating up people but he's got smarta$$ comment yet another worthless politician.
. . . . and what penalty did the Toro Rosso press man receive who was stopped for walking across road on red light??? makes you really want to go there!! Carol
This politician is for sure using the incident but it is Hamilton who is ultimately to blame. Police and authorities love to catch race car drivers doing stupid things. One would think Hamilton and any other F1 driver for that matter should be smarter. As public figures drivers need to wise up. Remember Bertrand Gachot going to jail for assaulting and spraying gas to a cab driver in Britain. He got a harsh sentence and lost his F1 drive for what apparently was in self defense.
Heres a video of the incident, at least the aftermath of it. http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/29/video-followup-lewis-hamilton-and-his-mercedes-benz-c63-nicked/
And I thought it was bad in the UK..for this sort of mind numbing crap. Ok big star and a Brit, role model BS, teach him a lesson, probably got word out to Webber to punt him out pathetic...
Gachot was involved in a road traffic accident with a taxi driver and used CS gas which is an illegal weapon un the UK and is classified as a firearm, hence his harsh sentence (6 months for possession of an illegal weapon and 18 months for assault as the judge deemed he had used excessive force against an unarmed man). At no point in the article is any mention made about the colour of Hamiltons skin or his family heritage. The statement was made based purely his driving antics. I don't think that the language used by this politician is particularily clever, blunt Australian or not. I expect people in office to choose their words a bit more carefully and not sound like a drunk in a bar looking for a fight. However, I agree with his sentiment, in that a lot of young men look at Lewis Hamilton and want to emulate him in any way they can, so if they see him doing burnouts and wheel spinning his car on the public roads, they'll copy him thinking it's cool. The trouble is, the vast majority of these young men have nothing like the car control that Hamilton possesses and will end up having an accident, more than likely involving some innocent motorist minding their own business. The FIA have done a lot of work trying to promote safe driving on the public roads in order to help save lives and as an F1 driver and a previous World Drivers Champion, Hamilton is expected to assist in this campaign by setting a good example, which he has failed to do. Something I would like to know is how many other F1 drivers feel the need to go out on the public roads wheel spinning and doing burnouts?. I'm not talking about driving fast, I'm talking about showing off and hooning around. As for all those who can't see what the fuss is about, how would you react to a twenty year guy crashing into your car because he lost control whilst wheel spinning and doing burnouts to show off?. Are you going to get out and pat him on the back saying: "Man, that was so cool!"?, I seriously doubt it.
I cannot imagine a country where all that police drama is played out because someone fishtailed pulling on to a road. Several cops, and cop cars, tow trucks and more - you'd think it was a murder investigation or that the car came back stolen or something. Lewis made a mistake - but Australia has a serious issue if that is their reaction to someone committing a minor road offense like fishtailing around a corner. And not that celebs are above the law, but when it's a race car driver doing it, I think leeway is warranted. I never knew Oz was such a nanny state. How lame.
Name a better way of advertising that this kind of driving will not be tolerated and that no one is above the law, though. Hamilton broke the law, got caught and has been made an example of for others to see. Would it be fair to other drivers to turn a blind eye in Hamiltons case because of who he is?. That would generate even more complaints of an inequality in the application of the law (one rule for one, one rule for the others!).
No, I actually have had a VERY similar encounter here in Texas in my Ferrari, after hitting some loose gravel in a construction patch downtown..it caught me by surprise, but I never lifted and rocks went everywhere!! IF FOR NO OTHER REASON, you have just given LEO the permission to CLOSELY evaluate your physical condition, demeanor, inspect your car for contraband, and survey it for legal issues. I had an expired Safety Inspection, and received a Citation.... Sadly I didn't have a big team of "nannies"....ahem, I meant 'handlers" to fade the heat like he did.... It shows a very poor level of "situational awereness" on Hamilton's part, IMO....
I just googled Tim Pallas. He really LOOKS like ******. Even more so than Ron Dennis. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Honest question... there is another thread with a video of Alonso driving above the speed limit and recklessly in Australia. Should Alonso be summonsed for a hearing as well? Please, no "if he wasn't caught in the act" stuff - the law doesn't require one to be caught in the act, it only requires proof.
No actually that's wrong..... Red light cameras are unable to be classified as legitmate "tickets" in Texas as there was no LEO present at the offense... They send them in the mail, (from out of State evn!) I pay them but 'no points charged" on my Record....because of the missing LEO "witness"....
Good grief, at the end of the night, he made it back to the Hotel to shag some new fashion model......I think we worry about the young lad too much!!!! In my day, we parked the rental cars IN the pool, and went to bed......
At any point in that footage is Alonso showing off, doing a burnout and fishtailing up the road?. As I've already said, there's a difference between driving fast and showing off. As for Alonso being summonsed, based on what evidence. Whilst the Alonso footage looks as though he's driving fast, We have no way of knowing what the speed limit in that area is, what speed Alonso is driving at and if he's breaking any laws whatsoever. In Hamiltons case, he was actually caught breaking the law, bang to rights!.
