HAMILTON's Apology To Whiting

^^ Rolls eyes

 

Anothing McLaren/Hamilton lie-gate post... I'm SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you!!!!


Reminds me of a guy who gets ditched by his hot girlfriend and just can't let it go... keeps reminding her of "the good times", meanwhile she's already out cavorting with the popular kids

 

Dear Charlie,

I'm sorry your organization has its head up its rear. When the FIA stops giving out BS penalties like they did to me at Spa, I'll start telling the truth. Until then, swivel!

Sincerely,

LH

 

Probably captures the situation pretty accurately....

 

I wonder if it's gonna be the same sanction as 07. Money plus exclusion from the WCC? I'd doubt the fine would be as much as last time but who knows.

 

I hope its not the same sanction. The punishment should fit the crime. IMO, a small fine (a million $ or so) and the threat of exclusion if it happens again would be plenty.

 

Yes truly ironic this:

I mean PornoMax clearly knows his stuff here, some what of a expert at bringing F1 into disrepute, and I'am sure he has some welcome advice for Lewis, on how to survive a public flogging.
Ban Mclaren and LH ...you know what's best for the sport Max Rules no one knows what the hell they are, proof even Trulli had to ask for clarification as well. Races cut short because they wouldn't listen to the locals, diffuser issue..still hanging..!!more off track BS than racing in only 2 races, the 2nd half of last year was a bad enough joke when he finally crawled out. IMO Max and his ridiculous vendetta for Mclaren, are totally ruining this sport.

 

...hmmm, the more I read about this incident, the more troubled I am by it. Although I am a big LH fan, I am starting to think that this needs to be more seriously punished. The part that troubles me the most is the fact that they were seemingly willing to allow themselves to keep a point that didn't belong to them, and more seriously, allow Trulli to be blamed for something he didn't do on purpose. To knowingly allow a fellow competitor to be blamed in this way, see his point taken away, all the time knowing that in fact he was being unfairly penalised is really poor sportsmanship. I am sure LH was not very comfortable to see this, but he could have and should have spoken up to correct the misrepresentation. The other thing that is disturbing is how incredibly stupid McLaren have been, especially when they were presented with evidence that proves their dishonesty. To continue to insist otherwise is a demonstration of stupid stubbornness at its worst (kind of like the white house denying that Obama bowed to the King of Saudi...!).

 

You have a point, I see the trouble as LH been stuck in a no win predicament, defy his team and say it as was, or lie, the trouble was he did say it as it was when he got out the car, So IMO you can only blame the team Mclaren for being complete and utter muppets. However the issue has been blown out of all proportion IMO ,to the detriment of the sport as a whole, a simple word from CW when the race was under the SC and none of this would have happened, thats where the focus should be, to insure this does not happen again, along with the lies, and stupid cover ups, it still is mind numbing they let this happen.

IMO We need cars on the grid, however if the crime fits the bill chuck em out, we all lose out.

 

It has been said, and I agree with it (although it can never be proven) that the reason they let Trulli past is because McLaren are ultra-paranoid of penalties.

In most sports, you would just carry on and if a mistake was made, it would be fixed after the fact, simply and without drama. But not in F1... in F1, you can make an honest mistake and still get penalized for it. You can question whether you made a mistake, be told that you didn't by the guy in charge, then get penalized anyway by his boss.

Mistake #1 was letting Trulli by. It wasn't his position... he tried to give it back to Lewis who wouldn't take it... had the stewards gotten back to McLaren that he was OK, he could have taken the spot back and that would be it. It's easy to say "they should know the rules", but look at Belgium last year - they knew the rules, they checked with Charlie who said it was OK, and they still got penalized. I can't blame McLaren for erring way on the side of caution.

So once they realize the mistake, they contrive a stupid story on the spur of the moment to cover it up, and held on to it until forced to give it up.

It's interesting that the specific details of the MS/Rascasse deal were never given out with such detail the way they are in this case.... IMO, it's silly to sort of set up McLaren/Lewis/Ryan by pulling them before the stewards two more times to ask if they are *really* sure they didn't give up the spot on purpose... it's like they wanted to goad them into incriminating themselves further. Why not just say "Hey guys, look, we checked the tapes, we don't believe you, so here's your penalty".

It just looks like badgering... most folks in the pit lane seem to think so too. I am sure McLaren will face some sort of additional penalty, it's a foregone conclusion.

 

I think that's exactly what it boils down to. It's too bad so many people don't see it.

 

...another issue is the realisation that much of McLaren's present problems are a result of both their own obsessive culture and also the FIA's tendency to persecute the team. This makes the team even more paranoid...and the result is an ever increasing instance of stupid and embarrassing debacles. The real concern is that the FIA's desire for disproportionate retribution puts the whole sport at risk. If they harshly punish McLaren they will run a real risk of Mercedes pulling out of the sport in disgust. I do feel that the sportsmanship aspects of this are troubling, but quite frankly nearly all teams have at one time or another have been guilty of unsporting behaviour. I still feel that the $100m fine last year was an obscenity, particularly as the original 'crime' was the Ferrari employee taking the Ferrari info in the first place (would a rabid Ferrari fan please explain why the McLaren employee's part in that was worth $100m, yet the Ferrari employee's part merited no punishment...?). The result of all of this is a strongly supported suspicion that the sport is rigged in Ferrari's favour, and in particular is slanted against McLaren. If this continues, the sport will become a hollow joke and a parody of itself. McLaren and LH did not conduct themselves in a proper sporting fashion, and that is deplorable. The FIA is guilty of behaving in such a manner too often themselves....

 

It would have been a much more sympathetic story for McLaren if it was a story of how McLaren lost P3 to Trulli because the FIA/Race Control could not respond to them, and their history in situations like this called for great caution. Instead, they lied, got caught in the lie, and are now going to be punished for knowingly letting that lie steal a podium from a competitor.

I feel no sympathy for them. I wish they would have acted in a way that would have had me complaining about how the FIA stole P3 from them, but that's not where we are.

 

I really think the lying was a result of their fear of getting themselves in trouble and being penalized. Not from trying to sneak onto the podium. But no matter what the reason, they had to be punished for lying and they were. In the end, the lying got them an even bigger penalty than any on-track mistake could have. What I dont want to see though is a ban handed to them by the FIA. The crime isn't serious enough for that level of punishment IMO.

 

And here we were having a rational discussion about the McLaren controversy. There's a perfectly good forum for this kind of "insight", it's called Politics & Religion.

 

...not even on the same page my friend. In Asian/Middle East culture's, holding hands between males is considered a sincere expression of trust and friendship. Bowing is considered submissive...pretty much everywhere. (of course, it wasn't a bow....he was just checking out the Kings belt buckle...)

 

welcome to the musketeers

 

Jeez, just trying to lighten the mood. No swipe intended.

 

I'd really love to hear Dave Ryan's side of the story. I'm hoping he makes an appearance at the WMSC meeting, but I'm not holding my breath. Since he was fired, they can't apparently 'order' him to appear. Whitmarsh must really be feeling the burn right now. His first team crisis since taking over from Ron, and it's another self-created one. Too bad he decided to go on vacation between Oz and Malaysia. I thought that was a strange choice, given the races were back to back.

 

Lewis Hamilton "Waaa waaa waaaa, I didn't mean to lie, but they told me too, look at me I'm a little angel, I even have a halo and uncle Ron tells me I'm special, please give me points."

You play to win. Hamilton knew this and lied. Unfortunately for him, it backfired. Happens everyday, in every sport. The fact that they are trying to suspend the team is pointless. What did you honestly expect Hamilton to do, he had the opportunity to grab more points and took his chances. Are we going to have to measure noses before each race (Kubica would win) and see who made Santa's list as a good boy for this year.

Time to move on.

 

I see Mac getting banned for 2-3 races. Really shameful for them to do this again. Seems like they never learned from teh 2007 incident.

 

That McLaren car LH calls his baby must seem a lot further from hand now than it did last xmas.

 

Interesting change in your view. I expressed alot of this in another thread and you had a few words and questions for me. Bernie says with money on the line, this is tantamount to fraud when points = money as they do in this sport.