Black Mercedes.

[TheDeuce]

HedgeyGedgey said:

The thing that gets me is its all because Lewis has stood up and said its a white dominated sport. Its the best of the best, whats he suggesting that teams now shouldn't scout out the best of the best instead pick their team based on their race. Isnt that just racist anyway. And Mercedes answer to all this is to just paint the car black, do we now call them the black arrows? Or is that racist because one drive is black? Or do we call them the black and white arrows? Wait I've got it, the multicultural arrows!!!! Has a ring to it I think

This is the thing. F1 teams are surely a prime example of performance being king - 'the best person should get the job' isn't just a popular sentiment in F1, it's an absolute necessity. Which does make it puzzling that there does appear to be a shortage of black team members. It is sometimes the case that certain ethnic groups simply don't tend towards certain career paths of course, not all spheres of work can be artificially evened out.

Mercedes seem to be approaching this from a point of view of reaching out to more black people to get them on the path to a career in F1. Does that mean that Mercedes believe there is an unjust barrier to black people becoming interested in the first place? Do they think black people are at some stage being made to feel unwelcome? I'd be genuinely interested to understand what they feel is 'broken' that they seek to fix - or if it's simply a case of wanting a representative workforce, regardless of whether the desire to be in that workforce is itself even and representative across all parts of society. I'd like to think that this isn't just a reaction to current issues for the sake of reacting - it's so hard to tell these days though.

Anyway, whatever the reason the car looks fantastic!! I keep looking at the picture and to my eye, the best car on the grid is now also the best looking. Oddly the second best looking car in my view is now the Williams (sans Rokit)..

[rscott]

sparta6 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

SO woke, SO stunning, SO brave.

Wonder what the racial mix of Daimler AG is or even the merc racing team for that matter. Bet them muppets will be taking the knee before races aswell

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

Probably - Daimler acknowledge it very clearly on their website along with their involvement in a foundation which helped the forced labourers they used.
https://www.daimler.com/company/tradition/company-...

Boss commissioned a book setting out their role in WW2 - https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/german-... - and many other companies have also admitted their roles.

[anonymous-user]

sparta6 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

SO woke, SO stunning, SO brave.

Wonder what the racial mix of Daimler AG is or even the merc racing team for that matter. Bet them muppets will be taking the knee before races aswell

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

Surely, if he was aware of that he would never have driven for them, best car or not?

But then, he’s still associated with Hugo Boss so some parts of history maybe aren’t as important as others.

[North West Tom]

It's cleary just a PR exercise to appease Hamilton. They even say in their statement, 3% of their workforce are non-white. You really think they give a damn? Next they'll purposely hire a black man for a random role they've created so they can say that it's 'progress'.

[sparta6]

[PanicBuyingBogRoll]

sparta6 said:

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

That took longer than I expected.

[TheDeuce]

REALIST123 said:

sparta6 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

SO woke, SO stunning, SO brave.

Wonder what the racial mix of Daimler AG is or even the merc racing team for that matter. Bet them muppets will be taking the knee before races aswell

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

Surely, if he was aware of that he would never have driven for them, best car or not?

But then, he’s still associated with Hugo Boss so some parts of history maybe aren’t as important as others.

That would imply that you assume he has no belief that people can change - or more accurately that people long dead might have been replaced with others that have rather different views!

When he signed for Mercedes I'm he wasn't worried that place would be full of Nazi sympathisers in the same way that he wouldn't expect them to give him a car from that era either

[sparta6]

TheDeuce said:

REALIST123 said:

sparta6 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

SO woke, SO stunning, SO brave.

Wonder what the racial mix of Daimler AG is or even the merc racing team for that matter. Bet them muppets will be taking the knee before races aswell

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

Surely, if he was aware of that he would never have driven for them, best car or not?

But then, he’s still associated with Hugo Boss so some parts of history maybe aren’t as important as others.

That would imply that you assume he has no belief that people can change - or more accurately that people long dead might have been replaced with others that have rather different views!

When he signed for Mercedes I'm he wasn't worried that place would be full of Nazi sympathisers in the same way that he wouldn't expect them to give him a car from that era either

Or, perhaps, he has a selective memory when advancing his career

[TheDeuce]

sparta6 said:

Or, perhaps, he has a selective memory when advancing his career

But why does it matter to him? He wouldn't be able to do anything or live anywhere if he avoided all connections with all companies and places that have some level or racial discrimination in their history. Britain certainly does..

He's judging those that he sees as creating problems with equality today. There isn't a problem with Daimler Benz's behavior or associations today so there is noting to fix or judge.

[Hazmat1]

sparta6 said:

Or, perhaps, he has a selective memory when advancing his career

I guess Nikki being Austrian should have been an issue too?
I mean hitler was? Should that have warned him off the team?

Or staying with Mclaren and using those naughty German engines was ok as the team was British (with funding from Bahrain and their impeccable human rights record)

Perhaps people just enjoy finding any reason they can to pick holes

[rscott]

sparta6 said:

TheDeuce said:

REALIST123 said:

sparta6 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

SO woke, SO stunning, SO brave.

Wonder what the racial mix of Daimler AG is or even the merc racing team for that matter. Bet them muppets will be taking the knee before races aswell

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

Surely, if he was aware of that he would never have driven for them, best car or not?

But then, he’s still associated with Hugo Boss so some parts of history maybe aren’t as important as others.

That would imply that you assume he has no belief that people can change - or more accurately that people long dead might have been replaced with others that have rather different views!

When he signed for Mercedes I'm he wasn't worried that place would be full of Nazi sympathisers in the same way that he wouldn't expect them to give him a car from that era either

Or, perhaps, he has a selective memory when advancing his career

Perhaps the fact that those companies have acknowledged the part they played and taken some actions to make amends (being part of an industry foundation set up to help forced labourers, etc) even attracted him?

[Muzzer79]

sparta6 said:

TheDeuce said:

REALIST123 said:

sparta6 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

SO woke, SO stunning, SO brave.

Wonder what the racial mix of Daimler AG is or even the merc racing team for that matter. Bet them muppets will be taking the knee before races aswell

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

Surely, if he was aware of that he would never have driven for them, best car or not?

But then, he’s still associated with Hugo Boss so some parts of history maybe aren’t as important as others.

That would imply that you assume he has no belief that people can change - or more accurately that people long dead might have been replaced with others that have rather different views!

When he signed for Mercedes I'm he wasn't worried that place would be full of Nazi sympathisers in the same way that he wouldn't expect them to give him a car from that era either

Or, perhaps, he has a selective memory when advancing his career

Or perhaps he looks at what companies and organisations are doing moving forward, rather than judging them on events from 80 years ago.

[kiseca]

sparta6 said:

TheDeuce said:

REALIST123 said:

sparta6 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

SO woke, SO stunning, SO brave.

Wonder what the racial mix of Daimler AG is or even the merc racing team for that matter. Bet them muppets will be taking the knee before races aswell

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

Surely, if he was aware of that he would never have driven for them, best car or not?

But then, he’s still associated with Hugo Boss so some parts of history maybe aren’t as important as others.

That would imply that you assume he has no belief that people can change - or more accurately that people long dead might have been replaced with others that have rather different views!

When he signed for Mercedes I'm he wasn't worried that place would be full of Nazi sympathisers in the same way that he wouldn't expect them to give him a car from that era either

Or, perhaps, he has a selective memory when advancing his career

Dude. Your garage says you have a Merc, a Porsche, and a Ferrari. Once again you completely undermine your own position and show that you're either irrationally biased against Lewis, which in itself is being discriminatory (you keep attacking him, but not for any valid reason, it's just because you don't like him) or you're a very persistant troll.

I've never known a troll to keep at it for this long and not get bored, so I have to conclude it's the former. Which makes your attacks on his views of equality even more hypocritical.

[HustleRussell]

sparta6 said:

TheDeuce said:

REALIST123 said:

sparta6 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

SO woke, SO stunning, SO brave.

Wonder what the racial mix of Daimler AG is or even the merc racing team for that matter. Bet them muppets will be taking the knee before races aswell

I wonder if Lewis has studied the history of Daimler and the Nazi party ?

Surely, if he was aware of that he would never have driven for them, best car or not?

But then, he’s still associated with Hugo Boss so some parts of history maybe aren’t as important as others.

That would imply that you assume he has no belief that people can change - or more accurately that people long dead might have been replaced with others that have rather different views!

When he signed for Mercedes I'm he wasn't worried that place would be full of Nazi sympathisers in the same way that he wouldn't expect them to give him a car from that era either

Or, perhaps, he has a selective memory when advancing his career

This is the kind of st I expect to read on Twitter or in the YouTube comment section.

People think that it is so clever and profound to point out this supposed hypocrisy but I find it about as clever and profound as that one ruddy faced old man who props up the bar and still says "Don't mention the war!" completely out of context whenever German people are mentioned.

I am highly suspicious of people who will grasp at such tenuous connections such as these in an attempt to undermine a positive move towards racial equality.

When those people are the same people who seem to participate on the F1 forum mostly in order to criticize Lewis Hamilton...

[sparta6]

TheDeuce said:

sparta6 said:

Or, perhaps, he has a selective memory when advancing his career

But why does it matter to him? He wouldn't be able to do anything or live anywhere if he avoided all connections with all companies and places that have some level or racial discrimination in their history. Britain certainly does..

He's judging those that he sees as creating problems with equality today. There isn't a problem with Daimler Benz's behavior or associations today so there is noting to fix or judge.

I agree.
And yet Lewis is yet to convey how he thinks things could improve in Britain.
Every successful person I know has arrived through merit and hard work, regardless of ethnicity.

I don't know of another country as open and diverse.

Lewis himself is a prime example of that.

[HustleRussell]

While I'm on my soap box, from what limited reading I have done, the initiatives launched by Hamilton and Mercedes appear to be very sensible and holistic in their approach in such a way that it could benefit young BAME people within and without F1. This is very refreshing compared to some of the efforts I have seen to make my backwater of Engineering more inclusive over the years.

[HustleRussell]

ash73 said:

Surprised there isn't a rainbow somewhere on the livery, to achieve maximum woke.

If you're offended by the pride flag, don't look at the recent McLaren and Williams livery shots

[DOCG]

HustleRussell said:

If you're offended by the pride flag, don't look at the recent McLaren and Williams livery shots

He's not offended, he's making fun of it.

[TheDeuce]

ash73 said:

But it makes me cringe, blacking up the car doesn't exactly have the right connotations... imho.

It's an interesting and perhaps 'designed to be a talking point' initiative. If I had gone to the US GP last season with my face blacked up to support the battle against inequality in the sport, I'm not sure my point would have come across as hoped...

It also kind of supports colour being relevant, when it should not be. Then again, Formula W has kind of (in fact, absolutely has..) introduced segregation in to a sports series that has since day one avoided such practices - and that seems to have been fully acceptable socially.

From a corporate POV Mercedes have probably played this one very well. From a logical POV it's easy to pick a few holes if you think about it in depth... But regards their corporate position and goals, it was a good move imo.

[DOCG]

HustleRussell said:

While I'm on my soap box, from what limited reading I have done, the initiatives launched by Hamilton and Mercedes appear to be very sensible and holistic in their approach in such a way that it could benefit young BAME people within and without F1. This is very refreshing compared to some of the efforts I have seen to make my backwater of Engineering more inclusive over the years.

What specific aspects of engineering do you think have been exclusive to this point and need changing?