Hamilton urges McLaren to keep Button

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says McLaren should keep Jenson Button for next year following the rumours Fernando Alonso will join the team.

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Lewis Hamilton urges McLaren chief Ron Dennis to retain Jenson Button (The Guardian)

“I guess it just highlights how limited Formula One is. There are only 18 or 20 seats. But he [Button] has proven time and again he is still a worthy competitor and a valuable asset for any team to have.”

Tougher time with Rosberg – Hamilton (BBC)

“Hamilton says his 2014 experience with Rosberg was ‘maybe tougher’ [than 2007 with Fernando Alonso] after the pair clashed on and off the track.”

Todt ready to fight for cheaper F1 engines (Reuters)

“I am going to fight about the price of the engines for the small teams. I will do the best. I cannot guarantee the result but I will really get into that.”

Qatar gears up to enter the Grand Prix circuit in attempt to boost sporting legacy ahead of the 2022 World Cup (The Independent)

“Qatar’s 3.4-mile Losail circuit has hosted F1’s feeder series GP2 and is home to the motorcycle championship MotoGP. However, Ecclestone isn’t ruling out an F1 street race which would allow the Grand Prix to stand out from its rivals in the Middle East.”

Is this the end of F1? (Arabian Business)

“In 2004 pure cash external sponsorship was $1.2bn a year; ten years later the cash has dwindled to less than $350m and many of the major sponsors that used to bankroll the sport have left. Big spenders such as Hewlett-Packard, Vodafone, Japan Tobacco, Orange, British American Tobacco, ING, West, Telefonica, Siemens, Panasonic, RBS and Credit Suisse have all left the sport with only Santander and Martini arriving as replacements.”

Eric Boullier Q&A: McLaren-Honda potential ‘huge’ (F1)

“Here we already have some specs of the 2015 car and you have to very careful, especially in terms of the electrical parts. You can damage a whole car just in the blink of an eye, so we prefer to take our time to make sure that there is no damage.”

Vettel checks out Ferrari (Sky)

“Vettel nonetheless stayed on in the Middle East following Sunday’s season-ending race and on Tuesday morning was pictured in plain clothes taking in the test from the Ferrari garage and meeting some of his new colleagues.”

Picking up the Mantle (Lotus)

“The second day of testing will be split between Esteban Ocon and Alex Lynn in the E22, heralding the final outing for the team in 2014.”

Raikkonen: Mattiacci did a good job (Autosport)

“I think coming from outside of Formula One into the position he came into is definitely not easy, and I think he did a good job.”

How I was Kryptonite to Hamilton (The Telegraph)

“Hamilton has, by his own admission, been his own worst enemy at times. He was for a while a complete liability with Twitter. But that is what makes Hamilton so compelling. He is a sportsman who wears his heart on his sleeve, and for that we should be thankful.”

Don’t wrap yourself in the flag if you won’t pay UK tax (The Daily Mail)

“To some of us it seems crazy for Britain to award state honours to men and women, however popular, who refuse to pay a rightful share of their financial dues to the Exchequer.”

Ed Gorman on Hamilton’s triumph, Ferrari chaos, Button’s doubts (James Allen on F1)

“[Hamilton] did have grounds for complaint and his season did get off on the wrong foot but you wonder whether the Hamilton camp could look at this aspect of his game for next year. Is it time for Hamilton to broaden his shoulders a bit and take the setbacks a little more in his stride?”

Things that should be said… (Joe Saward)

“Do these people not read newspapers? Do they not see that in recent weeks Qatar has been in deep trouble for being a haven for al-Qaeda financiers, not to mention at the centre of sleaze investigations in the FIFA World Cup?”

End-of-season questions (MotorSport)

“It’s been a season of desperate lows, with the injury to Jules Bianchi shaking the sport to its core. It’s a dreadful shame too that Marussia didn’t make it to the final race of the year, a decent bunch of guys who deserved to be there to acknowledge what they had achieved this season: scoring more points than Sauber or Caterham thanks to the efforts of Jules in Monaco.”

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Comment of the day

Lewis Hamilton’s preference to stick with his number 44 instead of using the champion’s 1 split opinion:

For Hamilton I think it’s a good decision to stick with 44 and also good for his PR and branding.

However, I’m somewhat surprised that Mercedes didn’t push him to put number 1 on the car as I’m sure that’s something they would want to promote their brand. Perhaps they did and Hamilton won the argument, or has Hamilton not discussed it with the bosses yet?
@JerseyF1

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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67 comments on “Hamilton urges McLaren to keep Button”

  1. Don’t wrap yourself in the flag if you won’t pay UK tax (The Daily Mail)

    “To some of us it seems crazy for Britain to award state honours to men and women, however popular, who refuse to pay a rightful share of their financial dues to the Exchequer.”

    It’s not ideal but think about it the other way. To others, the promotion of a British driver winning at 10 different countries all over the world is essential to their business and they just don’t mind.

    The guy is winning, and keeping a factory full of britons working at a tremendous pace, with parts coming in from other british companies… without his success (and the success of other drivers also living in Lake Geneva or Monte Carlo), we don’t know how bad it’d be.

    1. Why are you arguing with The Daily Mail anyway? They’re the TMZ of written media.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        26th November 2014, 1:36

        Why they appear on F1Fanatic so regularly baffles me.

        1. I was thinking the same. Both Guardian and Daily Mail. Why does F1 site with a highly engaged members needs articles written by people who probably don’t think about F1 more often than once every other weekend.

          1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
            26th November 2014, 4:40

            And when they do think about it, they know very little of what they’re talking about.

        2. I’m OK with different opinions, so I don’t mind neither Guardian nor Daily Mail in the round-up.

          On the tax refugee theme… my question is, how can Switzerland keep a high standard of living with much less taxes than Britain, Spain or Portugal?

          1. Simple answrr : they don’t. Switzerland like all rich European countries has massive tax levels, one of the top…. For its citizens. Only wealthy foreigners living in Switzerland get tax breaks. With equal incomes, Wawrinka pays much more tax than Jo Wilfried Tsonga. In such Switzerland are a fiscal predator to its neighbors and its a matter of huge debate there.

          2. @tophercheese21 @jcost

            Both Guardian and Daily Mail. Why does F1 site with a highly engaged members needs articles written by people who probably don’t think about F1 more often than once every other weekend.

            Because a vast world exists beyond the tiny niche of Formula One and if we fail to notice that we fail to understand its perceptions of the sport, from those on the left of the ideological spectrum (The Guardian) to those on the right (The Daily Mail).

            I think you underestimate how much original news still comes from newspapers, even in the internet age. It’s a mistaken impression that’s easy to gain because there are so many (usually anonymously written) websites out there which steal content from newspapers and pretend it’s their own.

          3. @tango I’m amazed Europe hasn’t shut down the tax havens, with the threat of cutting them off, literally. Ireland just moved to close it’s tax loop known as the ‘double Irish’.. I guess money would flee Europe if havens were targeted? Switzerland is slowly starting to implement reform..

          4. @keithcollantine The Guardian is socially liberal, not left wing, i.e. socialist. In terms of the socio-economic spectrum it is actually center-right, as is all of the British press. Yes, the British press does offer plenty of journalistic resource and clout, but it is far from true to say that displaying it on this forum is an act of political variation.

          5. @jcost I believe that there is much tighter constitutional control over taxes in Switzerland which means that they can’t be put up whenever some politician decides he wants to make himself more popular by spending on this, that or the other.

            The people have greater control and therefore the government has to make the best of the resources available to it rather than continually wasting resources and solving its problems by taking more each year.

            Another point is that while tax rates may be low (in % terms) by attracting the wealthy to reside there they actually increase the overall tax take in monetary terms and also through the recycling of money in brought into their economy by the wealthy. It’s the reason that most low tax countries (known as tax havens by those with higher tax rates) put a lot of effort into attracting wealthy individuals to reside there – a low % of a big income is better than nothing!

          6. @keithcollantine as I said: I’m OK with different opinions and I welcome every bit of news I read here.

            Round-up would be less interesting without diversity. Keep it the way it is Keith.

    2. If Hamilton worked primarily in Britain then I, too, would expect him to pay tax there. But despite the presence of the Mercedes factory in Brackley, Hamilton does his most important work all around the world, only taking part in F1 sessions in Britain for three days a year, so I don’t really mind where he chooses to live and pay tax. He is welcome to race under the British flag for as long as he feels British.

      1. “He is welcome to race under the British flag for as long as he feels British”

        Some days I feel British, some days Canadian, some days American :)

    3. I think it is all getting quite silly. This is a man who has flown the British flag high from his karting days till today. I mean there is a very memorable picture broadcast around the world just this weekend of young Hamilton flying the British flag high- “default 44” message from MercedesAmgF1.The guy’s performance has been beneficial to the country, especially in terms of jobs. Such senseless attacks, bile and outright lies, I beleive are part of the reason he left Maclaren, and they as expected pounced on him due to that decision predicting an end to his carreer. 2 years later he is a world champion.
      There are companies, bosses, billionaires and millionaires -sportmen included, who call themselves English by name but have all their fortunes abroad. I am yet to hear anyone attack their decision. At least Hamilton is proud of where he comes from and flies the flag high all the time.
      Left to me, next time he wins a race he should fly the Grenada flag. At least someone there would say ‘Thank you’.

    4. Wow… and I thought spanish people were the only ones that felt this way… They still, to this day talk crap about Alonso living in Switzerland for some time. Even today that he now lives in Asturias, they still bring that up, ultimately it is nonsense where he lives or not… He has given more to more people than most of the people that live in Spain actually do…
      He bought a dying cycling team… He built a track in Asturias using spanish workers and therefore giving spaniards jobs… seriously, where he lives is non of my business, as long as he takes pride in being Spanish and helping the spanish people in any way he can, he´s ok in my book.
      You guys shouldn´t make the same mistake too.

      1. I guess it’s the same all around the world. Schumacher was often critized here because he lives in Switzerland, too.

      2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        26th November 2014, 3:25

        @karter 22 in Peru we say that people are like a crab’s trap. They are open cages, but as soon as one of the crabs tries to climb up, the others take him down. So baffled to see other nations do the same to their most representative and honor-deserving people.

        1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
          26th November 2014, 3:28

          @karter22 see my comment above

      3. @karter22 his cycling team never got off the ground and seriously annoyed everyone involved.

        1. @frood19 It is still an on going project but that is besides the point, the oint is he cares for spaniards and that sport as well.

    5. I too don’t see what the big deal is. As far as the UK is concerned, they’ve always had a lot of their citizens opting to live in various locales for various reasons. I’m Jamaican with Scottish ancestry. There are loads of Brits in my family & I personally know over a dozen Brits who moved to my home country for the weather alone (a few for the rum & ladies alone). Ever been to Cyprus, France, Italy, or all over the Americas & Caribbean, to name a few? Go to any tax haven & you’ll probably find a couple. So many “ordinary” & well heeled Brits have moved to these places without complaint, but Because Lewis is a celebrity it’s suddenly a problem. Ridiculous. Funny how it seems some Brits are only patriotic when pointing out how unpatriotic other Brits are.

    6. The worst ive seen is in the daily star, where there was an article slagging HAM off for his accent! I couldn’t believe it! The guy hasnt lived in england for years, has a long time american girlfriend and Brits can still criticise him because his accent has changed!

    7. This article just comes across as incredibly bitter. For crying out loud the man has won a world championship, and he chooses to wave a British flag as that’s what he feels his IDENTITY is. Who cares where he lives or who he pays taxes to!! I honestly think that the Daily Mail go out of their way to be (insert appropriate expletive) when they should be praising Lewis for raising the image of Great Britain. Also, as has been pointed out above, Lewis spends the majority of his working days abroad, so he shouldn’t pay income tax anyway. A friends father has spent most of the last two years in Italy working on the salvage operation of the Costa Concordia. Last year he was only in the UK for 10 days so he didn’t pay any income tax. Maybe the Daily Mail should write an article condemning him and many others like him who work abroad and still call themselves British lol!!

  2. Its good to see the British drivers sticking up for each other. Hopefully McLaren keep Jenson.
    F1 will become more popular now that Hamilton is the champion, he’s the blockbuster driver.
    The daily mail writer should be sacked for his obnoxiousness.

    1. F1 is a global sport, it isn’t just Britain.

    2. That sort of obnoxiousness is what the Daily Mail encourage, because it sells papers.

    3. The Daily Mail gave their full support to Hitler and the Nazi party and encouraged British people to lobby the government to take the side of the Nazi’s in the build up to WW2.
      You really don’t need to know anything else about Daily Mail to understand their editorial standards.

  3. So people are not allowed to be proud of where they come from because they don’t pay taxes?
    THAT is part the problem of the World. Ridiculous comment

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      26th November 2014, 3:20

      @brunes I guess the British royalty pay a lot of taxes then, given how many flags they wave.

  4. Didn’t see anything in that article regarding Hamilton’s opinion on Magnussen, except that Jenson beat him in the same car. Hardly a vote of confidence, IMO.

    1. Hamilton likely doesn’t feel he can comment on Magnussen’s performance.

    2. I thought it referred to both drivers but I may have been mistaken. It’s possible the article has been changed, though the Guardian are one of the more diligent papers when it comes to declaring that sort of thing. So I’ve revised the text in the round-up to make it clearer. There was absolutely no intent to mislead, I can only assume I made a mistake here.

  5. How ungrateful. Alonso always had good words about Lewis and now Lewis says he would preffer to see Jenson in a McLaren rather than see Alonso… Seriously, I would take Alonso over Jenson ANY day of the week!!
    Oh well… for me, it´s now bye bye to Ferrari and hope Alonso lands the Macca seat. Never liked that team much but if Alonso is headed that way… then I will support McLaren.

    1. IMO, the headline stating Lewis was supporting keeping Magnussen is a stretch. I read nothing of the sort. I think Hamilton spoke up for Button, but said nothing about Alonso because it’s almost a certainty that he’ll be at McLaren regardless of what happens with BUT or MAG. & he’s been plenty complimentary to Alonso over the years. Arguing about reciprocity in this case is pretty pointless… again, IMO.

    2. Please do not judge from headlines. Read the article.
      He spoke about Jenson Button and did not focus on Magnussen. According to the article, he only said Jenson had a strong finishing in Abu Dhabi with Magnussen at his side. Now, Ron Dennis can choose to keep Button and Alonso while Magnussen is kept somewhere within the team until it is right for him to take his place. It is his choice.
      Hamilton is not stupid. I guess by now, he probably might already assume, just like everyone else, that Alonso’s deal with Maclaren is already sealed. If that is the case, then he was merely talking about the only remaining seat at Maclaren.
      And again you don’t expect him to say in England that Ron should fire Button and retain Magnussen and in front of the British press. They would skin him alive.

      1. I did read it and yes, you are right, he did speak better of Button than Magnusson, but in the other article he says that Rosberg was a tougher team mate than Alonso and I remember reading from him not long ago that having Alonso behind him was like having a raging bull coming after you… I didn´t hear such things about Rosberg and now he is tougher than ALO??
        I think Lewis knows Honda is going to produce a cracker of a PU and is just trying to eliminate some stiff competition early on. And to think I was actually rooting for him to win over Rosberg…
        I truly hope Alonso lands the seat, it would be a real shame missing out on what ALO could do with a good car and instead having to watch a whiner like Jenson(I say this because of his whining over Perez´ tough driving). The thought of it is just ludicrous to me.

        1. I think that Lewis knows for sure that Alonso is going to McLaren and is trying to add to the pressure from British media trying to shame McLaren out of dropping Button. Or more likely, it’s what he actually thinks

        2. ya ignore the headline, thats just click bait. mis-leading head lines sometimes happen on this site.

        3. @karter22 he didn’t say Rosberg was tougher mate. He said the experience was tougher and I this it’s quite clear to everybody (Monaco, Budapest, Spa)…

        4. @karter22 Zing, the truth comes out. Thinly veiled Button-hate is still Button-hate.

        5. Lewis has done his fair share of whining over the last two seasons with Merc (read some of the radio transcpits) and the biggest whine was Twittergate lol

        6. @karter22

          “…in the other article he says that Rosberg was a tougher team mate than Alonso…”

          Hamilton meant that his relationship with Rosberg as a teammate was tougher than his relationship with Alonso (as Jcost pointed out, in 2014 there was Monaco, Spa, etc.), rather than saying he was tougher as a driver. Despite the flashpoints in 2007 like Hungary, Hamilton and Alonso have said that their relationship in 2007 was actually not bad, and remained quite professional. Alonso says some words about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a2g__qOFGo

          They have since become very respectful of each other, and Hamilton did actually refer to Alonso as his “toughest adversary” in July 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhgabcvRUcU#t=305s.
          Alonso also has a lot of respect for Hamilton, as seen by the way Alonso went to congratulate Hamilton in Abu Dhabi after he won the championship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0BmtUYs-OI

  6. Work all round the world. Race in 19 countries over nine months. Pay one of them 45% of your income for the privilege of sleeping there on the 70 or so days of the year you’re not racing, testing, being sent on sponsor engagements or just ‘being elsewhere’.

    On each of these 70 nights and the days either side, be hounded relentlessly by photographers, autograph hunters and people waving phones in your face while trying to stand next to you and ram their arm around your neck.

    Think I’d move to Monaco as well.

    1. COTD right there. I share your opinion. To be honest, I think we would all do it if we minions should magically be in that position 1 day. Everyone wants their money to go as far as possible, rich or poor, and you do what you need to to achieve it.

    2. Very good points, I would add that a Pro sportspersons value is shortlived and as they have no other training or skills need to live the rest of their life on these earnings, most return to their homeland and pay taxes on the income from their investments like everybody else.

    3. I agree 100% with your comments, as well as both of the replies above.

  7. Re Qatar’s link to IS, they actually fund Al Qaeda, although yes, their human rights record is terrible, plus they almost certainly got the rights to host the World Cup by underhanded means.

  8. I took Buttons tweet yesterday to be quite poitive compared to most of his recent comments both on TV and in print.

    “Past year. I’m not done yet!! There’s still so much I want to achieve in this sport 👍”

    It sounded to me as if he had been told there was a chance they would still retain him…..but maybe I read too much in to it!

    No harm in hoping there is still a chance!

  9. Is it just me or is it a little hard to believe Jean Todt’s sincerity?

    Up until now he has been utterly silent on the current crisis in F1. However after hearing criticism of his absence I did notice him on the grid Sunday not so subtly making sure he was filmed shaking a drivers hand in front of Martin Brundle.

  10. “the rumours Fernando Alonso will joking the team.”
    is that a freudian slip there?

    1. Oeiiiiiiiiiiii! (another davidnotcoulthard account) (@)
      26th November 2014, 5:44

      @keithcollantine

  11. I think they will drop German and Hungarian GP in next few years to make place for other mid East places like Qatar, Dubai . Mexico is getting added. Plus India wants a comeback. Enjoy traditional circuits while you can.

    1. I read that Denmark wanted to hold a race in 2018… lmao. Denmark stuggle hosting the Eurovision!

    2. We need a Finnish Grand Prix again! They have bred some of the world’s best drivers and their last Grand Prix was before the war.

      1. Ideally somewhere in the North of Finland on an ice track with barriers made of snow ;-)

  12. Why not Button and Alonso? Why only Button and Magnussen. Magnussen can’t bring half the points that Alonso OR Button does, even next year I’m sure.

  13. That Mail writer should know that the newspaper’s owner, Lord Rothermere, is a non-dom, living in France for tax purposes! Oops, there goes the Xmas bonus!

    1. @Dan, living in France for tax reasons is like living in England for the weather… It does not add up :D

      1. According to Private Eye, Lord Rothermere, owner of Associated Newspapers, “has Non-Domicile tax status and owns his media businesses through a complex structure of offshore holdings and trusts which entail him paying almost no UK tax on his income, investments or wealth.”

  14. Oh my God, what an awesome era the late 90s early 00s for F1..The cars looked fantastic…The liveries were something special..Even the backmakers had nice liveries(eg Arrows with Orange) and looked they belong to F1, unlike Marussia and Caterham who look like they came from a lower formula…From 2005 and onwards, with banning the tobbaco sponsorship, I haven’t seen a nice livery..And with banning alcohol sponsorships, there’s no hope that we see a nice one in the future..

  15. I have never been a Seb Vettel fan and I cannot believe how pathetically excited I was when looking at the pics of him in the Ferrrai garage. Can’t wait to see how 2015 pans out! Also, that Honda PU better be all it promises to be!

  16. We might just be in for a shock when the McLaren driver decision is published; I think few realize just how serious a contender Stoffel Vandoorne is becoming. Ron clearly said there were four candidates and it is the Belgian who is taking McLaren’s tentative first steps with Honda this week, and with Stoffel part of the programme with Honda from the outset, I detect he has a realistic chance of lining up alongside Alonso next year.

    But it should be no surprise because McLaren appear to have found themselves a champion of the future. He has just been ranked in the top two of both of F1’s premier class feeder categories in consecutive years, and on both occasions won his debut race and was beaten to the title only by a more experienced driver driving for the DAMS junior powerhouse. Not since Hulkenberg took a rookie GP2 title in 2009 has a driver been more deserving of an F1 drive, and Dennis knows that. Also, do we think Magnussen has championship potential?

  17. I still think McLaren should go with Magnussen, He deserve’s another year.

    Its not as if he was nowhere all year, There were times when Kevin was faster than Button & he showed some real promise through the season. I just don’t see how its right that you bring a young driver in who then does a good job over his rookie year only to throw him out at the end of the year which will do nothing but hurt a promising young career.
    With so few teams now, Its not as if they can send him to a back of the grid team to continue to learn & gain experience, If McLaren drop him then he’s out of F1 for a year & as I say that will do nothing but hurt him.

    1. Totally agree in all you are saying!

  18. RUle number one of F. ALonso , no strong second drivers, role drive number one for me, and for the other a young inexperience driver that will accept second driver role.

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