Don't bother wasting the bandwidth, Ian. You are better off debating a soap dish than trying to get a coherent response from him.
You know, people forget that it was a Ferrari employee who gave the info to McLaren. It's not as if McLaren stole it. Of course the WCC is tainted. It was won by default, not by on-track performance. Ferrari were second best this year and don't deserve to win it. Thanks goodness they left the drivers championship alone. At least the WC will be a deserving one. Nathan
I don't know if you know how Lexus was started. In the early '80s Toyota said they can win any market over in the US except the luxury spot occupied by MB. This is why they send thousands of "spy's" in the US pretending to be exchange student that were mostly placed in upper class families. Their sole goal was gather and record info about what all these families (potential MB buyers/owners) found attractive by MB and why they wanted one. Based on this info they created Lexus specifically for the US. Everywhere else it is Toyota. This is why if you see an earlier Lexus from far away it looks just like a MB. The point is that they start with technology and design that is already proven and all they have to do is improve on it, while the other team spend all the time and resources developing it. Honda admits doing it in their road car department and are open about saying that it gives them an edge. If it is true in road cars, then just imagine the impact it would have in F1 where 0.05 of a second a lap is the difference between becoming a champion or not.
No matter what Hamilton out-drove everyone in the field this year, plain and simple. Yes people are always going to say it's tainted, but I personally don't think it's going to matter, even next year.
And he somehow out of the sky got 1million pounds richer....... Reality check please. Someone used at as example earlier but are you innocent if rob a bank if it is not that well guarded? By your logic it would be their fault you robbed them.
It is funny how you love to demonstrate your lack of creativity. Every time someone tells YOU something >don't waist the bandwidth< next thing you know you are using it in your next post. Now I see why you have a Ferrari in your garage. It is definitely compensating (in your own mind only) lacks in some other departments.
I believe it was discussed in here time and time again. Not by me, mind you. It was in different articles. You don't seriously expect any of us to memorize where we read every paragraph or to know exactly what number the post someone made is and in which thread? That may be possible for some retired guy that has no life whatsoever but not for most people in here. Besides whether he got paid or not, McCheaters still accepted KNOWINGLY stolen information. What I really like them to explain also is how come Ferrari fired immediately their employee and pressed charges against him, but McCheaters kept theirs. Even if he is "suspended".
I read many of these articles and can't remember a single reference to this alleged 1 mio. Stepney was paid 1 mio USD as his salary by Ferrari, but I haven't seen a reference stating he was paid that by McLaren as a bribe.
No one has ever officially stated that he got 1 million bribe from McCheaters for sure. As far as we know it was part of the ongoing investigation, the records for which were sealed. I am sure that maybe one day we would know for sure. This however does not make the believe that this whole thing is Ferrari's fault any less laughable.
IMHO I think if ALONSO won the championship it would be tainted, but not Lewis as I don't think he got the same kind of info Alonso got from De La Rosa. As far as the Lexus argument, it is a choice, but the Lexus IMHO has no character or soul, great Appliance (kinda of like a diswasher or washing machine). Drive a 7 Series or S550 and tell me how the Lexus compares.
McLaren should have been thrown out of the WDC 2007 and Stepney belongs in jail. Along with Coughlan. No question. That's not my point. The point is, that you are mentioning the 1 mio as fact, where there is no reference to it. I haven't seen anything suggesting any monetary transfer. His motivation was revenge for not being promoted to team manager and he wanted to sell himself and Coughlan to Honda. But I never found a reference that he did it for $$$. That's not to excuse him or anything, but if you saw that somewhere in writing, I'd like to see that source. It would be actually interesting as it would be a new angle to the story.
I would not take a lexus over any german car in a million years (assuming we are talking in the same class). I just gave it as an example, because statistically Lexus took that market away from MB. And as far as 7 series go, I'll drive a BMW over pretty much anything else, save for few exotics, but that is a different thing.
not true. as interesting and shocking a rumour that this is, please dont simply quote other ppls posts and represent them as true- especially when those ppl dont have a source for the info basically until proven this is just another bit of unfounded speculation.
+1 Off Topic: As the Lexus owners drive by and admire the Benz the one thing they couldn't possibly understand is that the Lexus is a more expensive a car to maintain than the Benz. The joke is on them courtesy of the folks from Japan.
It's tainted . Last race I saw FA and LH were still driving a McLaren. Only reason the drivers weren't docked their WDC points was that LH lawyer and Norbert Hauge begged the FIA not to exclude Mclaren because LH didn't "do anything wrong". Having said that Fernando Alonso will never win another WDC. LH will only get better with time. Watching his onboards from Fuji he has the smooth input of Alain Prost and the aggresiveness of Ayrton Senna. Kimi and Massa better up their game and not have a single DNF if they wanna beat him. Cheers
The most impressive aspect of Hamilton's drives is his precision aggressiveness. He doesn't seem to throw himself into situations most others do yet he's contesting every corner.
Lexus was a brand specifically (and artificially) created for the US market. All their design headquarters were in california. You so conveniently left just the first part of the second line from my quote. It was a new paragraph for a reason. We all have heard the story, I don't need to quote other people. Sorry that some of us here don't document every single little thing. Your local STAPLES store probably would run out of stickies/post it if you try to do that.
The guy is damn good. Unless Ferrari can lure him (I doubt it) we're going to see LH win at least 5-6 WDC in the next 10 years for McLaren. May God have mercy on his opponents.
Imagine a Ferrari web site thinking the title is tainted !! Steve Machette is a nice guy, but he is not exactly 'brain of britain' material. He is a dealer mechanic, who became a line mechanic at an F1 team, and wrote a great book on his experiances, but he is firmly a MS/Ferrari/Ross Brawn fan. Listen to Peter Windor and David Hobbs and they have different opinions.
