Hamilton’s victory parade cancelled
A victory parade for Lewis Hamilton on the streets of McLaren’s local town has been called off.
It is reported that civic leaders in Woking, located in the English county of Surrey, baulked at the $160,000 bill to provide security for the event.
“Given the council’s financial position and the national and global economic climate, Woking Borough Council is unable to fund an event that would enable members of the public to safely participate in the celebrations,” a town hall spokesman is quoted as saying by the Daily Star.
The last time Woking based McLaren crowned a new Formula 1 world champion, thousands thronged the streets to see 1998 title winner Mika Hakkinen drive his Mercedes-powered single seater through the town.
McLaren did not comment.
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First Recession, then the Honda Pullout have been stealing Hamilton’s thunder. In rapidly changing world, these recent news have made that last lap in Brazil seem like a distant past , oh my, oh my
What a shame. I don’t suppose any of the sponsors would like to put up the money.
I don’t suppose Lewis would like to put up the money.
It’s not just for him, it’s for all those employees, and the people of Woking to feel proud of too.
I’m sure if he did though, some people would complain at the gesture.
Hope all the local government bodies, companies and sponsors remember these lessons in furgality that are learnt in this economic winter and maintain the discpline in better days as well.
Talking of Discipline, the only person who was practising Discipline of some sorts became Butt of all jokes thanks to NOTW
That’s less than a weeks pay for Lewis and I’m sure Ron isn’t short of a few quid, if I was them I’d be wanting the big public homecoming party after waiting so long for a Championship and would pay it myself.
All seems a bit fitting. It wasn’t like Lewis walked away with a championship a few races in hand. He got it because of someone else’s poor tyre choice.
And besides only 2 more championships and he can drive his orange Mclaren where ever he likes.
still bitter then craig?
craig - better than being given it by some questionable FIA decisions…
Who’s poor tyre choice?
Presumably Craig is referring to Glock’s struggles on the last lap in Brazil. However, considering this the reason why LH won the title shows ignorance of truly comedic proportions.
People forget that just two weeks before, at the Chinese GP, Mr. Massa was helpfully gifted 2nd place by Kimi
When Lewis did a parade in Stevenage they interviewed one local women who expressed her shock at how many people had turned out for the newly crowned World Champion. Her exact words were ” its not like he’s won X Factor or anything”
Quite!
Wow craig, poor tyre choice? You mean that Glock should have gotten wet tyres like everyone else? You do realize that the only reason that Glock almost finished in front of Hamilton was that he didn’t change tyres. It was a pretty good gamble and it almost paid off.
If Glock had been on the right tyres he would have been behind Hamilton to begin with and the whole drama would never have taken place.
BTW why are the costs so ridiculously high? He just drives a lap through town to the factory or something. Do they need to remove all the speed camera’s or something?
It’s not like you can just round up a few more bobbies - you need to have a whole security structure, from where the parade starts and ends, and everywhere around it. They’d be responsible for literally anything that goes wrong - and when you have millions of pounds of technology being brought to the street that $160,000 is somewhat put in perspective.
Maybe if you chuck David Blaine, picking his nose for a few days in a potatoe sack, into the deal they may go for it.
If every Hamilton fan on this blog chipped in a pound or two, we could have a parade from Picadilly Square to Woking to Stevenage and back. In seriousness, someone should come up with the coin as recognition the for dozens of McLaren staff and suppliers whose special reward for bringing in the WCC will be pink slips resulting from the the factory closing rules and other regressive cost-cutting measures.