The Official F1 2021 silly season *contains speculation*

[DanielSan]

liner33 said:

Yes you are right there is no way that Damon would know anyone in F1 at a high level.

Whilst gossip is gossip I don't think DH would have tweeted such if he wasn't pretty certain of his facts .

He doesn't tweet a huge amount of F1 gossip to be fair, so on the odd occasion he does it will have come from somewhere reliable.

[Teddy Lop]

kiseca said:

MustangGT said:

kiseca said:

liner33 said:

kiseca said:

I agree. Hamilton has never done anything to suggest he doesn't want competition in the other car. Everything he's said says he enjoys the competition, and I'm pretty sure I've read before on PH that the team have said he has no veto on what drivers they partner him with.

Now there will be someone who will reply "of course he will say that..".... no he won't. Maybe, of course some of us would say that in his position, but we aren't hamilton, don't know Hamilton, and we don't know his contract. The little information we do have says he doesn't care who his team mate is. I've never seen anything but speculation suggesting that's not true. I've never seen any reference back to any event, action of contract signing that suggests Hamilton has influenced who his team mate is in a way that gives him an advantage. I've only ever seen Toto mentioning he'd like to avoid the management complications of another Rosberg / Hamilton clash, because it was dividing the team. Nothing in there to suggest that Hamilton was the one with the problem.

It was reported that he did want to veto team mate during last years contract negotiations, (Damon Hill Tweeted such) , said contract was meant to be for two years , yet was only one . I wonder what the sticking point might be ?

Was it? I hadn't seen such reports but I trust Damon. Fair point.

Hang on guys, how on earth would Damon have any knowledge of contract details, he is a totally unconnected party?

I agree with Kiseca's original comment, Lewis has always said he wants competition and does not care who is in the other seat.

I mentioned earlier that everything I hear from Lewis or Merc is that lewis doesn't care who his team mate is, and from those saying he does care, I never hear anything to back that up other than the assumption he wants to win and he's happy to pull a Senna or Schumacher to do so. If Damon has tweeted a desire to veto though, I take that as an opinion from a reliable source. Might be wrong, it might just be speculation on Damon's part, but there could be something behind it. So it opens my mind a little on the subject, makes me a little less skeptical.

In addition, I genuinely do think he didn't care, particularly around 2016 when replacing Rosberg. However, for 2020, he hasn't said any different but this year, with a possible title number 8 on the cards, he may well have found the idea of using his influence to remove a challenge from his team mate more appealing, and retrospectively knowing he's got a tough challenge from Max, he's probably quite happy he's not in a three way battle.

Overall, I still think he still cares less than most champions to a team mate challenge, but I still think he won't try block George from the team in 2022.

Damon's not one to make things up, but it does go against every sentiment Lewis has expressed and shown in the past, and driver prompted vetos have a way of quickly becoming the most open secrets in my experience.

[MustangGT]

liner33 said:

Yes you are right there is no way that Damon would know anyone in F1 at a high level.

Whilst gossip is gossip I don't think DH would have tweeted such if he wasn't pretty certain of his facts .

Unless DH is privy to the contract negotiations anything he may tweet is purely hearsay with no foundation to support it.

[HustleRussell]

Toto says openly that the team wants to avoid another Hamilton Rosberg situation. The team wants two drivers who are not at war with one another.

Their preferred method is to pick a pair of drivers who, without management, will tend to be out of one another’s way.

Hamilton is still there. This is his ninth season with the team. Hamilton is not going to be the Bottas.

Hamilton says he doesn’t care who his team mate is and doesn’t have any influence on who gets the nod but I don’t believe him on either count. You don’t demand a salary of 40 million plus in the naive belief that the team might pay the same again to the other driver. Hamilton has a superstar presence in the team.

Hamilton says he wants a fight for the championship but in my opinion he wants that fight to come from outside of his own team.

[paulguitar]

HustleRussell said:

Hamilton is not going to be the Bottas.

This is all getting a bit philosophical.

[CoolHands]

Does anyone remember that tv piece that showed LH going into a back-room after a race where he won with very difficult tyres (I think) ie had to make them last cos the strategy was no good. Team cocked up. Maybe that one where he got flat front tyre? Might have been silverstone can't remember. But the thing I remember is it seemed slightly awkward because although LH was joking it was a bit, like all the people in there (ie techies) seemed a bit uncomfortable - LH in a sense made it like that, that "you guys left me hanging type of thing". But on the surface it was meant to be jovial / a celebration of the fact he overcome the problem.

I'd love to watch it again if anyone can connect what I'm saying to a youtube vid of it!

[Deesee]

Pinched from Reddit..





Then bags the Williams drive..

[MissChief]

Max would be fking livid lol.

[Exige77]

MissChief said:

Max would be fking livid lol.

He’s always fkin livid

[talksthetorque]

Deesee said:

Pinched from Reddit..





Then bags the Williams drive..

Nah, Williams always bin off WDCs

[MartG]

Williams has announced the departure of its Formula 1 team principal Simon Roberts

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-f1-tea...

[geeks]

CoolHands said:

Does anyone remember that tv piece that showed LH going into a back-room after a race where he won with very difficult tyres (I think) ie had to make them last cos the strategy was no good. Team cocked up. Maybe that one where he got flat front tyre? Might have been silverstone can't remember. But the thing I remember is it seemed slightly awkward because although LH was joking it was a bit, like all the people in there (ie techies) seemed a bit uncomfortable - LH in a sense made it like that, that "you guys left me hanging type of thing". But on the surface it was meant to be jovial / a celebration of the fact he overcome the problem.

I'd love to watch it again if anyone can connect what I'm saying to a youtube vid of it!

Sounds like Monaco 2019

[Sandpit Steve]

MartG said:

Williams has announced the departure of its Formula 1 team principal Simon Roberts

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-f1-tea...

He didn’t last long! Pushed, or jumped?

[aston80]

Sandpit Steve said:

MartG said:

Williams has announced the departure of its Formula 1 team principal Simon Roberts

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-f1-tea...

He didn’t last long! Pushed, or jumped?

Obviously pushed

[TheDeuce]

aston80 said:

Sandpit Steve said:

MartG said:

Williams has announced the departure of its Formula 1 team principal Simon Roberts

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-f1-tea...

He didn’t last long! Pushed, or jumped?

Obviously pushed

He was set up for the role during Claire's time so it's hard not to assume he's in that mold to an extent..

I think the new owners want a clean sweep, which is frankly fair enough - they own it, it's their choice! Obviously the reality of running a 700 strong outfit is that you can't replace key people overnight.

Likely a few HOD's will depart too one way or another I expect.

[trackdemon]

TheDeuce said:

aston80 said:

Sandpit Steve said:

MartG said:

Williams has announced the departure of its Formula 1 team principal Simon Roberts

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-f1-tea...

He didn’t last long! Pushed, or jumped?

Obviously pushed

He was set up for the role during Claire's time so it's hard not to assume he's in that mold to an extent..

I think the new owners want a clean sweep, which is frankly fair enough - they own it, it's their choice! Obviously the reality of running a 700 strong outfit is that you can't replace key people overnight.

Likely a few HOD's will depart too one way or another I expect.

There seemed to me to be a suggestion that it's a part of an effort to trim the operation with his role being shared across existing staff. I'd have thought with upcoming budgets trimming that 700 to a more sensible number would be a bigger priority, that's a lot of salary to cover whilst others manage with much tighter smaller staffing levels (and outperform them...)

[Leithen]

Oh dear.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/williams-drops-tick...

[number2]

So sad .

[Teddy Lop]

Leithen said:

Oh dear.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/williams-drops-tick...

Crumbs, just when he was starting to look like someone who wanted to redeem himself.

Idiot

[thegreenhell]

Oh well. He might still be able to make a career in Indycar or something. They'll take anyone over there.