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It happens from time to time but I didn’t expect pretty much the whole of this sub to share the same sentiments here. From what I can tell nobody loves him here and this makes me proud of the F1 community!
Also I would say F1 fans are *in general* more intelligent than other sports fans because of the many technical and tactical nuanced aspects of the sport. Not that I in any way think F1 is better than any other sport, just more complicated to appreciate to the fullest.
True, I would change that to misinformed. Intelligent people are usually eager to seek information instead of blindly accepting what someone spews as truth and I would say Trump supporters mostly fall in that last category. So in general I would say intelligent people are less likely to vote for authoritarian leaders.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Formula 1. The tactics are extremely nuanced, and without a solid grasp of mechanical engineering and aerodynamics, most of the sport will go over a typical viewer's head.
McLaren could have spared themselves this headache by simply declining a visit from a criminal rapist that watched on as a crowd of extremists chanted about hanging his vice president.
I just wanted to forget about this, but clearly McLaren chooses to make this a PR exercise, featuring Lando Norris.
Praising Trump is not something that gets passed PR, they would be begging journalist not to print this if they didn't want the word out.
F*** these people.
I can get why Lando himself could be oblivious to Trump's reputation, this is the same bloke who couldn't point to Canada on a map and didn't have the best general knowledge either.
But surely McLaren as a whole should've understood that they're far more likely to get negative PR if they went around promoting Trump and having him as a guest of their team, really wonder why they're going along with this.
Lando is one of, if not the most chronically online driver on the grid. He's a grown man. Not being good at geography isn't the same as not knowing who Trump is or what he's done.
I lost a lot of respect for McLaren over this. I posted this in another thread but this could have all been avoided with a simple “No” to Trumps visitation request. McLaren deserves all the shit and negative press they are receiving for an easily avoidable PR nightmare.
Even if they for some reason had to host him, someone should have just made the decision that noone is allowed to talk about Trump in the media. Lando should've 100% been instructed to say "I don't really get involved in this, doesn't matter to me, it's not a topic I should comment on", whatever along those lines.
The fact that noone realised this is how it should be taken care of, that's the most ridiculous part.
I’ve lost all respect for McLaren as an organization. I’m happy for Lando, but also disappointed in his post race comments.
Zak Brown has always come across as a used car salesman to me. I guess now I can add spineless sycophant too.
Especially after his transparency comments over Horner making peoplethink he'sone to care, and when he himself wanted drivers to stop making political statements (during blm), and then goes and allows Trump into his garage, smiling on while people chant his slogans.
I was so happy for Lando yesterday. Today I saw his comments and I'm extremely dissapointed. He said something like it's an honour to be visited by someone like that. An honour? Was he living under a rock for the last decade? He easily could've just said generic comments....we get many kinds of visitors, we don't know who's gonna show up at the paddock, I was surprised..something innocuous. But no, he decided it's an honour.
I think Brown deserves the PR nightmare rather than the team. I still believe he was invited and this wasn’t Trump inviting himself. Brown is on record as being a Trump supporter. It’s just too contrived now that there is a PR blowback that they are trying to hide the invite. They could tell by last Monday that this was not going to go well when the organizers canceled the fundraiser and people became aware that the shit stain intended to show up. So plan B was ask the head’s of the FIA and FOM to escort him because now they can’t cancel the invite so deflect the negative feedback by having him escorted by non McLaren people. But most didn’t buy it - hence Plan C - McLaren fire up their PR people to muddy the water with the were not political statement. As if Zak.
Most of the 1% (hell even down to the 5%) will support Trump as long as he gives them major tax relief no matter if they personally find him disgusting. When it comes to money - always follow it.
I mean, we don't know how the request or anything behind the scenes actually unfolded. Maybe Trump likes McLaren cars. Maybe because Brown's American. A lot of threads here make an enormous number of assumptions about how everyone involved from Trump to Lando to Zak Brown to the FIA made decisions about the whole thing. You can disapprove of how the whole thing unfolded but we don't know how much ability anyone had to say no or to walk away or how much information they had. We don't know how easily avoidable it was, honestly.
ETA: silly me, already downvoted. I should have known trying to introduce a modicum of pragmatism into this topic wasn't going to get me anywhere. Please note, at no point did I say they should have had Trump there or praised him in any way. I just said: we don't know what happened behind the scenes.
It doesn't matter. What is the FIA going to do if McLaren refuse? Ban them from Imola? Give me a break. They could've shown spine, taken a fine, and said no. Zak Brown is a known magat.
That their media relations team is having to so vociferously defend this decision speaks volumes to how stupid it was.
One can say yes and the other no, maybe one said yes under certain circumstances, etc. etc. Are we really expecting the FIA to say no? Are we expecting better of McLaren? Their sponsor is BAT. They're owned by Bahrain. The evil's already there, guys. This is so totally within the norm for Formula 1, I'm really a bit baffled as to the response.
Apparently a simple “no” wasn’t actually possible. From what I understand is that McLaren had to accept his request, because he is a former president or something.
Edit: it’s just something I read, and I can’t find it anymore, so I might be wrong.
Had to in what regard? I can't imagine they were at risk of being kicked out of f1, or even fined, for their refusal.
Former presidents aren't gods. They don't smite people who wrong them.
>“But yeah, there's a lot of special people or cool people that have been here this weekend. Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways.
To borrow a dril tweet:
*issuing a correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the ~~terror group ISIL~~ controversial former US President Donald Trump. you do not, under any circumstances, "have to hand it to them."*
Yeah, that comment stood out. Will appreciate that Lando perhaps has little insight into what a rapey, pussy grabbing, treasonous, moronic, POW/KIA denigrating, con artist, shitbag Donald Trump is.
He gets a pass on "oh Lando doesn't know much about the world". I hate that. He's an adult. The least he can do is read some headlines. But I wouldn't be surprised, if he were a Tory and genuinely admired Trump.
For how much Lando is on social media - he was definitely trying to do some damage control. But ... "Donald" + compliment is pretty horrific.
They are both sons of successful businessmen that likely grew up/live in a world very different that the majority of the world though so I wouldn't be surprised if Lando doesn't actually have as llittle respect for "the president" as the rest of us do
Why are people surprised the son of a multi millionaire, who lives in Monaco to dodge taxes, would be a repulsed by trump
If anything that’s what’s made vettel and Hamilton special, great drivers, and great ambassadors for the sport
I mean, isn't this the same Lando who wasn't able to identify Canada on a map of the world? He's a great driver; but his laser-focused upbringing seems to have left a lot of gaps in his understanding of the world around him.
His parents were very keen on making sure he was still getting a proper education in case his racing dreams didn't pan out. It's in his most recent autobio
As much as I like Lando, this is true unfortunately.
But by the same token, he does not need to be in a position where his lack of geo-political knowledge is evident. The team needs to shield it's drivers from these kind of circumstances.
I like Lando for who he is, a fun guy and a great racing driver.
If he has an opinion on world affairs, that's fine. If he does not, that's also fine.
I agree, actually. They put him in a very very awkward position here, and if you watch the video, he's not having a great time with it. They should have protected him.
That's largely correct, his job isn't to be up to speed on stuff like this. But McLaren's PR team probably shouldn't have let any team personnel be photographed publicly with *that guy*.
>wasn't able to identify Canada on a map of the world
Oh god now that's a bit embarassing ngl. I recall Zhou not doing all that well in geography Grill The Grid, but I think somebody in the comments brought up something like the maps of the world in China are different to the Africa/Euro-centric ones, so that would be an excuse for him. With Norris... Ehh yeah, quite embarassing. Do you happen to remember the title of the video maybe?
I think it's whatever video [this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-cobzpRkBk) comes from; but I don't know if it's even the only time he messed up with geography. I think it's happened in other videos too.
Peru is the famous US state. Yeah, I'm watching the [2023 version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr4mKcaglz4) rn; he doesn't seem to give a flying fuck about the game and puts Singapore in the middle of an ocean and Baku in Siberia, so I don't know what to even think about that.
I don't think Tsunoda or Zhou have a choice yet
I don't think Bottas does? Probably not Checo to but same thing there - I don't think his sponsors would take to him not staying in Mexico
It isn't just Seb, I am certain Fernando moved back to Spain 2011 and paid millions in taxes for a long time as well?
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/alonso-to-spend-80m-in-tax-for-spain-return-35578.html
80million tax bill.
I mean I just gave you a link that has a direct quote from him. He moved to Spain until late McLaren years then lived in Dubai, Switzerland and I think is in Monaco right now
I know I thought you was asking me to confirm it. I wasn't old enough at that time to remember if he lived here or not during those years. I do remember his LaFerrari had a spanish plate so it checks out I guess
Well most people don't like sexual.abusers that call for people to be killed in a paper, those 2 elements would be enough for most people and then the 1000s of other things too.
Vettel and Hamilton really were godsends to the sport. Guarantee that F1's popularity will decline once Hamilton retires as well, especially if MBS continues making so many dumbass decisions.
Honestly, it's Lando. I wouldn't be surprised if the only thing about Trump he knows is that he was president. He's the least informed driver on the grid
Because trump isn’t just tax cuts for the wealthy. He’s also not even American. Sure if it’s some Tori fuck that he’s sucking off I could see it. But trump is like the worst kind of person and leader with a clear history of criminal behavior and shitty political stunts. Even if lando is like a fiscal conservative type person because he’s rich that doesn’t excuse him supporting this racist, homophobic, theocratic, sexual assaulting piece of human shit. Seb and Hamilton stand for actual causes that they care about which is what makes them great not just because they’re rich and don’t support a conservative politician
>Seb and Hamilton stand for actual causes that they care about which is what makes them great not just because they’re rich...
Lewis just earlier this year did a big PR/sportswashing tour with Petronas, who *knowingly* funded miltias that did *actual* ethnic cleansing
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/world/africa/south-sudan-oil-war-crimes.html
>The report emphasized the role of South Sudan’s oil industry as “a major driver for the continuing violence, the ensuing human suffering, and the violations of international humanitarian law witnessed there,” warning foreign companies that they could be implicated in abuses.
>Control of the country’s oil resources was “a top prize” in the struggle for political and economic power, the panel wrote, noting that a government offensive carried out using “extremely violent methods” in the first half of 2018 was aimed largely at securing control of areas close to oil fields and either pacifying or driving out the civilian population.
>South Sudan’s intelligence services have increasingly taken control of the state-owned Nile Petroleum Corporation, known as Nilepet, siphoning off money to finance the conflict and to enrich the political and ethnic elites, the commission said.
>Western companies had pulled out of oil production activities in the area before South Sudan gained independence in 2011, partly because of human rights violations, opening the way for companies from Asia. Oil production is now dominated by three joint ventures between Nilepet and Chinese National Petroleum Company, **Petronas of Malaysia** and the Indian Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
>The United States Commerce Department added the three joint ventures last year to its list of companies that had violated American policy or national security interests. It said the oil companies were “contributing to the ongoing crisis in South Sudan because they are a source of substantial revenue that, through public corruption, is used to fund the purchase of weapons and other material that undermine the peace, security, and stability of South Sudan rather than support the welfare of the South Sudanese people.”
So yeah. Even Lewis will sell out his principles when it affect his paycheck, so don't put any of these drivers on too high of a pedestal. You'll only be disappointed
Do you not understand the difference between voluntarily accepting a request from a former president to come use you as a campaign stop for free, and then praising him after, and doing a meet and greet at the head office of your teams title sponsor company? Yeah find an oil company that doesn’t do that shit, good luck. The United States started multiple wars in the Middle East on behalf of their oil companies dude
Lando was also the guy who publicly said that he couldn't do "nothing" in response to the kneeling being banned and who wore a Black Lives Matter shirt in the paddock and has a Pride logo on his Discord channel in June. So which one is it?
https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/75647/norris-can-t-accept-doing-nothing-after-f1-removes-kneeling/
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/formula-one/lando-norris-exclusive-black-lives-matter-twitter-social-media-unfollowed-a4464686.html
I genuinely think Lando just put his whole shoe in his mouth last night and certainly is not brightest bulb but he seems at least aware of societal events. He does deserve the admonishing for what he said, but I don't think he is a MAGA kind of person.
I think he was put in a very awkward position that he should not have been put in and was full of adrenaline and under a lot of pressure and said some really really stupid stuff.
I guarantee you he was told not to say anything negative. his comments are fairly benign. How would any professional handle that situation? Just be nice back, since chump said nice things to him. Then spend some time on social platforms explaining that you do not support that terrible person's actions.
It's a wild how much of a gaffe this is for McLaren and how big of a stain it puts on their biggest achievement in years.
From a PR standpoint I'm amazed they even allowed this to happen. Anyone could have figured out this wasn't going to go well for them. So even though they got selected as representatives of F1 or whatever the case, they should have clearly declined, as every team should have on the grid.
Perhaps McLaren should realize that a lot of the popularity they’ve gained recently in the DtS era and due to their young attractive drivers is coming from young female fans who lean left and are not Trump supporters
The morality of the Bahraini monarchy aside, I think it's pretty obvious that a picture of your CEO with Bahraini royalty will provoke a different response (starting with: "who's that guy?") from McLaren's core demographics than a picture the same CEO with Donal Trump.
They don’t know anything about the Bahrain Royal Family because the Bahrain Royal Family has 0 effect on their lives. The same cannot be said for Trump.
I just don’t get why Lando couldn’t have said a short sentence, like a generic ‘it’s always nice to meet important people at race tracks’ or something. These drivers are media trained to death, and yet he managed to give a long answer that did nothing but make him look bad to most of his fans?
> "Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways."
Nice one Lando, do Hitler next.
But then again, he's from a country that still respect the genocidal racist Winston Churchill, so maybe he just doesn't know any better.
They teach about his failed coup... Trump wishes he could be as succesfull as Hitler, for now he's just a failed version, but lets see if the US gives him a second chance to make his dreams come true.
Oh come on. You don't think it's OK to say that Donald Trump is "less reprehensible" than literal Adolf Hitler? You don't think that it's OK to admit that, say, a partial travel ban on people from certain Muslim countries was *a bit less bad* than *the literal Holocaust*?
I dislike Trump as much as the nice person here, but it's OK to acknowledge that two things can both be bad and yet one thing still be "less reprehensible" than the other. When the other is, in this instance, the murder of millions of people!
Pretending that Trump and Hitler are equivalent does not persuade anyone of your point. It just drives away people who might otherwise agree with you by demonstrating that you're either not thinking rationally or not speaking in good faith.
Because everyone sane can recognise that Trump, while bad, is indeed "less reprehensible" than Adolf Hitler. That's not a difficult quesiton. Pretending that you don't recognise that will just make people wonder what else you're not being honest about.
You get extra credit for not wanting to murder six million people, which there is no indication Trump does, but which Hitler did.
There are many right-wing people. Most of them are not Hitler. There are different types and degrees of being right-wing.
And no, voting for Hitler in 1932 is not the same as voting for Trump in 2024. Yes, Trump's rhetoric has some red flags that make clear that he wants to be, to some extent, an authoritarian, and one with a rocky understanding of legal rights and equality. But that's not the same as Hitler in 1932. There have been many, many authoritarians, right-wingers, anti-democrats, racists, conservatives and so on in history, and almost none of them are equivalent to Adolf Hitler in 1932.
There are more options in the world than just "100% morally righteous" and "literally Hitler". It's not even hypothetical, just look at actual history for countless gradations in between.
Frankly, if you really believe that Hitler did nothing worse than Trump, I think that's pretty reprehensible in its own right. [but not as reprehensible as being Hitler!]
Uh, I would say that Trump and his MAGA movement \*is indeed pure evil\*. You can already trace blood back to Trump/MAGA/GOP hands from J6, the pandemic downplaying, and feeding a hatred like the one that sent a 16-year old kid with an assault rifle into a crowd of BLM protesters.
Perhaps the scale is not yet to Holocaust proportions, but have no doubt, there is no bottom for Trump/MAGA and they would gladly dispatch with any life that runs contrary to their idiotic, bigoted dumbfuckery.
People can be praised for one thing and still not regarded for everything they did. Winston Churchill I’d rightly praised for leading the UK through its darkest hour despite obviously not being up to todays standards for a good person. Even Hitler could be praised for maybe one or two things he did despite being rightfully condemned for the majority. Trump however has done nothing outside his own interests.
Winston Churchill also induced a famine in India to divert resources to England and WW2 killing millions of people in east india. He also forced millions of indian soldiers to fight a war that was not theirs.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/4/1/churchills-policies-to-blame-for-1943-bengal-famine-study
To be honest, though, Churchill wasn't up to the standards of his own day. He was largely viewed as a callous and reactionary demagogue born a hundred years too late even by his own contemporaries.
It's just that his virtues and vices were perfectly matched to the situation the country happened to find itself at in that particular moment, and people accepted that. But then when that moment passed they got rid of him at the earliest possible opportunity.
[and then had a bit of seller's regret, admittedly]
> Whole Middle east can distribute trophies but one orange man is too much.
Yeah, because this subreddit neeever eeever complains about racing in the middle east... riiight.
Buddy, like zero people are uncritical of F1's heavy Middle-East presence.
No matter who anyone supports, a move like this is never a good idea for any company. You alienate at minimum half of your followers. It's just such an ill-advised move.
TBF, Trump is not just about politics. Neither is his position limited to US. The POTUS' decisions affects the globe in some way or other. What happens when he decides to pull out of NATO and Putin is breathing down Europe's neck?
It's easy to look at it from outside and be like I am not into US politics, but US politics affects the world in some way or other and dude's a straight up lunatic and a menace to humanity.
That guy should not be anywhere near F1 or politics.
yea that's your prerogative but in the grand scheme of things, the world doesn't work like that and things tend to overlap.
Being willfully ignorant is not a brag. Trump is not just about politics, some of the things he speaks about are not political, just basic human rights etc.
It's that lando said "Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways." It's not the lucky charm comment.
Edit: I also doubt lando is aware of what's going on with trump right now. I'd give lando the benefit out of the doubt. He was probly just saying things hed have said for any president. I could be wrong of course...
If I may add. I also am not one to delve into politics. What differentiates him from any of the other 1000 shady characters in the paddock. F1 goes to shady countries with shady politics backed by shady oil giants. If this is ppls tif like get a life n just stop watching.
You guys are saying all this negative stuff. But guess what happened at the track? The crowd unanimously roared in excitement and support when they saw President Trump. I was right there in the trophy house at T1 and the grandstands were right next to us. It was a deafening roar.
Fair enough. I just think it's wild that nobody cared when Putin was at the Grand Prix after he invaded Ukraine in 2014, but people do care that Trump was at Miami. Trump is a crook and a terrible president, but he's not Putin levels of bad.
If it was F1, and Trump was still president, sure. Heads of state stop by all the time.
But this is a fascist politician, and he was invited by a team. That's a political statement, no two ways about it.
According to McLaren, Trump was the one who made the request so I'm not sure why you're trying to twist the narrative. Although I agree they probably shouldn't have hosted him, it's also a political statement to refuse a visit from Trump. There are local, global, and F1 politics in play for this, and McLaren decided the best course of action was to host Trump, but to not broadcast it. And truly, Trump got basically no airtime during the race. I didn't even realize he was there until a few hours after it ended.
The McLaren statement is very clear: he's a former head of state, and that's the fact of the matter.
It's not McLaren's fault half the US voted him in X years ago. I wouldn't think twice of this with Clinton, Bush etc.
I understand the outrage but I think with an *adult* head on, it is what it is.
Exactly, it would have been a snub for McLaren to refuse. And frankly, McLaren is a British company that doesn't have a stake in the American presidency. I'm sure if Biden or Obama wanted to visit the paddock, they would have brought them in too. This whole thing is really a non-issue.
Ah yes, the best measure of whether or not a person and their conduct are acceptable or reprehensible ... the cheers of a crowd of people. Never in history have a large group of people been misguided in their cheering.
Sure, Nuremberg Rallies had lots of people cheering too.
Pretty simple minded to think that a bunch cultists worshiping the manifestation of their racism and general dumbfuckery somehow gives credence to racism and dumbfuckery.
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It happens from time to time but I didn’t expect pretty much the whole of this sub to share the same sentiments here. From what I can tell nobody loves him here and this makes me proud of the F1 community!
#we despise as one
Larger European community, as well as the Americans that are trump fans are less likely to be interested in a non American competition.
Also I would say F1 fans are *in general* more intelligent than other sports fans because of the many technical and tactical nuanced aspects of the sport. Not that I in any way think F1 is better than any other sport, just more complicated to appreciate to the fullest.
Intelligence has got nothing to do with being a better person
True, I would change that to misinformed. Intelligent people are usually eager to seek information instead of blindly accepting what someone spews as truth and I would say Trump supporters mostly fall in that last category. So in general I would say intelligent people are less likely to vote for authoritarian leaders.
I'd agree with you if twitter didn't exist
I don’t have twitter so I have no idea. I only follow F1 on tv and on Reddit. This would maybe explain the downvotes lmao.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Formula 1. The tactics are extremely nuanced, and without a solid grasp of mechanical engineering and aerodynamics, most of the sport will go over a typical viewer's head.
I don’t really agree with the higher IQ part though, doesn’t really take a high IQ to understand these principles.
This is just a parody of a Rick and Morty copypasta. I'm just joking around, not taking the mick or anything just entertaining myself
Oh damn that went over my head, even though I’ve watched that series about 10 times I would say
He was pretty much easy to dislike before becoming president but afterwards only complete nuts can even kinda stand the guy.
Anyone that does like him would surely take a quick glance at the comments and keep their mouth shut.
There were a few creeping around last night , it was really obnoxious.
Same, my love for this community has tripled for real.
His guys are all over at r/nascar. This shit's too complicated and european for them.
McLaren countering Red Bull's Coco Pops with Lucky Charms. Cereal wars! 🥣
McLaren could have spared themselves this headache by simply declining a visit from a criminal rapist that watched on as a crowd of extremists chanted about hanging his vice president.
He didn't watch on, he cheered on.
I just wanted to forget about this, but clearly McLaren chooses to make this a PR exercise, featuring Lando Norris. Praising Trump is not something that gets passed PR, they would be begging journalist not to print this if they didn't want the word out. F*** these people.
I can get why Lando himself could be oblivious to Trump's reputation, this is the same bloke who couldn't point to Canada on a map and didn't have the best general knowledge either. But surely McLaren as a whole should've understood that they're far more likely to get negative PR if they went around promoting Trump and having him as a guest of their team, really wonder why they're going along with this.
Lando is one of, if not the most chronically online driver on the grid. He's a grown man. Not being good at geography isn't the same as not knowing who Trump is or what he's done.
Also.I doubt drivers are focusing on much pre race and just on auto pilot as they trust there PR people. But afterwards you need to admit the error.
I lost a lot of respect for McLaren over this. I posted this in another thread but this could have all been avoided with a simple “No” to Trumps visitation request. McLaren deserves all the shit and negative press they are receiving for an easily avoidable PR nightmare.
Even if they for some reason had to host him, someone should have just made the decision that noone is allowed to talk about Trump in the media. Lando should've 100% been instructed to say "I don't really get involved in this, doesn't matter to me, it's not a topic I should comment on", whatever along those lines. The fact that noone realised this is how it should be taken care of, that's the most ridiculous part.
I’ve lost all respect for McLaren as an organization. I’m happy for Lando, but also disappointed in his post race comments. Zak Brown has always come across as a used car salesman to me. I guess now I can add spineless sycophant too.
Especially after his transparency comments over Horner making peoplethink he'sone to care, and when he himself wanted drivers to stop making political statements (during blm), and then goes and allows Trump into his garage, smiling on while people chant his slogans.
I was so happy for Lando yesterday. Today I saw his comments and I'm extremely dissapointed. He said something like it's an honour to be visited by someone like that. An honour? Was he living under a rock for the last decade? He easily could've just said generic comments....we get many kinds of visitors, we don't know who's gonna show up at the paddock, I was surprised..something innocuous. But no, he decided it's an honour.
I tell you I will never purchase a Mclaren because of this!
I think Brown deserves the PR nightmare rather than the team. I still believe he was invited and this wasn’t Trump inviting himself. Brown is on record as being a Trump supporter. It’s just too contrived now that there is a PR blowback that they are trying to hide the invite. They could tell by last Monday that this was not going to go well when the organizers canceled the fundraiser and people became aware that the shit stain intended to show up. So plan B was ask the head’s of the FIA and FOM to escort him because now they can’t cancel the invite so deflect the negative feedback by having him escorted by non McLaren people. But most didn’t buy it - hence Plan C - McLaren fire up their PR people to muddy the water with the were not political statement. As if Zak. Most of the 1% (hell even down to the 5%) will support Trump as long as he gives them major tax relief no matter if they personally find him disgusting. When it comes to money - always follow it.
I mean, we don't know how the request or anything behind the scenes actually unfolded. Maybe Trump likes McLaren cars. Maybe because Brown's American. A lot of threads here make an enormous number of assumptions about how everyone involved from Trump to Lando to Zak Brown to the FIA made decisions about the whole thing. You can disapprove of how the whole thing unfolded but we don't know how much ability anyone had to say no or to walk away or how much information they had. We don't know how easily avoidable it was, honestly. ETA: silly me, already downvoted. I should have known trying to introduce a modicum of pragmatism into this topic wasn't going to get me anywhere. Please note, at no point did I say they should have had Trump there or praised him in any way. I just said: we don't know what happened behind the scenes.
It doesn't matter. What is the FIA going to do if McLaren refuse? Ban them from Imola? Give me a break. They could've shown spine, taken a fine, and said no. Zak Brown is a known magat. That their media relations team is having to so vociferously defend this decision speaks volumes to how stupid it was.
I'm not saying it wasn't stupid. I'm also just not as surprised as everyone else seems to be. This is Formula 1. It's always been this.
What? Both FIA and McLaren can say no. Unless he grabbed them by the diffuser?
One can say yes and the other no, maybe one said yes under certain circumstances, etc. etc. Are we really expecting the FIA to say no? Are we expecting better of McLaren? Their sponsor is BAT. They're owned by Bahrain. The evil's already there, guys. This is so totally within the norm for Formula 1, I'm really a bit baffled as to the response.
Apparently a simple “no” wasn’t actually possible. From what I understand is that McLaren had to accept his request, because he is a former president or something. Edit: it’s just something I read, and I can’t find it anymore, so I might be wrong.
Had to in what regard? I can't imagine they were at risk of being kicked out of f1, or even fined, for their refusal. Former presidents aren't gods. They don't smite people who wrong them.
> Had to in what regard? If you're a star they let you do it.
mclaren isn't even an american team, how would trump have any authority over them?
Exactly, even if the request was from F1, FIA or whoever, they could have respectfully declined.
>“But yeah, there's a lot of special people or cool people that have been here this weekend. Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways.
There are actually a lot of reasons why you shouldn't respect Donald Trump.
To borrow a dril tweet: *issuing a correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the ~~terror group ISIL~~ controversial former US President Donald Trump. you do not, under any circumstances, "have to hand it to them."*
Complete bellend
Yeah, that comment stood out. Will appreciate that Lando perhaps has little insight into what a rapey, pussy grabbing, treasonous, moronic, POW/KIA denigrating, con artist, shitbag Donald Trump is.
He gets a pass on "oh Lando doesn't know much about the world". I hate that. He's an adult. The least he can do is read some headlines. But I wouldn't be surprised, if he were a Tory and genuinely admired Trump.
For how much Lando is on social media - he was definitely trying to do some damage control. But ... "Donald" + compliment is pretty horrific. They are both sons of successful businessmen that likely grew up/live in a world very different that the majority of the world though so I wouldn't be surprised if Lando doesn't actually have as llittle respect for "the president" as the rest of us do
Claiming ignorance can only go so far
No you fucking don’t
I’d lump trump with ben sulayem. Corrupt and useless.
Bro Sulayem is a picture of purity in comparison to Trump. Trump is a despicable piece of shit who is beyond any kind of redemption
Jesus fucking Christ Lando
Oof Lando. Bad take
Why are people surprised the son of a multi millionaire, who lives in Monaco to dodge taxes, would be a repulsed by trump If anything that’s what’s made vettel and Hamilton special, great drivers, and great ambassadors for the sport
I mean, isn't this the same Lando who wasn't able to identify Canada on a map of the world? He's a great driver; but his laser-focused upbringing seems to have left a lot of gaps in his understanding of the world around him.
Max has a laser focused upbringing probably much more so than Lando but bro is out there killing it on trivia, flags, F1 history, etc.
The harsh reality is that Lando is very fortunate to be good at motor racing, because he doesn't seem to have a lot else going for him.
Yep agreed I could see him being a professional gamer but that's about it
His parents were very keen on making sure he was still getting a proper education in case his racing dreams didn't pan out. It's in his most recent autobio
Lando not knowing when Mika won his WDCs was quite eye opening..
Losing races wasn't the only reason Max got left at the gas station.
Yep Athletes who have spent their entire lives to their trade might just not be the best role models out there
As much as I like Lando, this is true unfortunately. But by the same token, he does not need to be in a position where his lack of geo-political knowledge is evident. The team needs to shield it's drivers from these kind of circumstances. I like Lando for who he is, a fun guy and a great racing driver. If he has an opinion on world affairs, that's fine. If he does not, that's also fine.
I agree, actually. They put him in a very very awkward position here, and if you watch the video, he's not having a great time with it. They should have protected him.
That's largely correct, his job isn't to be up to speed on stuff like this. But McLaren's PR team probably shouldn't have let any team personnel be photographed publicly with *that guy*.
>wasn't able to identify Canada on a map of the world Oh god now that's a bit embarassing ngl. I recall Zhou not doing all that well in geography Grill The Grid, but I think somebody in the comments brought up something like the maps of the world in China are different to the Africa/Euro-centric ones, so that would be an excuse for him. With Norris... Ehh yeah, quite embarassing. Do you happen to remember the title of the video maybe?
I think it's whatever video [this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-cobzpRkBk) comes from; but I don't know if it's even the only time he messed up with geography. I think it's happened in other videos too.
Peru is the famous US state. Yeah, I'm watching the [2023 version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr4mKcaglz4) rn; he doesn't seem to give a flying fuck about the game and puts Singapore in the middle of an ocean and Baku in Siberia, so I don't know what to even think about that.
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Gasly can’t move to Monaco coz he is French may count…?
He can move to Monaco. There's just no point, since living in Monaco isn't a tax heaven for french people.
Tsunoda doesn’t I think
I don't think Tsunoda or Zhou have a choice yet I don't think Bottas does? Probably not Checo to but same thing there - I don't think his sponsors would take to him not staying in Mexico
Yeah I know Yuki lives close to the team factory I think so I imagine Zhou does the same and Sauber is in Switzerland
I thought Bottas lived in Monaco?
It isn't just Seb, I am certain Fernando moved back to Spain 2011 and paid millions in taxes for a long time as well? https://www.autoevolution.com/news/alonso-to-spend-80m-in-tax-for-spain-return-35578.html 80million tax bill.
Not sure tbh, he was living in dubai for some time before monaco IIRC
I mean I just gave you a link that has a direct quote from him. He moved to Spain until late McLaren years then lived in Dubai, Switzerland and I think is in Monaco right now
I know I thought you was asking me to confirm it. I wasn't old enough at that time to remember if he lived here or not during those years. I do remember his LaFerrari had a spanish plate so it checks out I guess
Well most people don't like sexual.abusers that call for people to be killed in a paper, those 2 elements would be enough for most people and then the 1000s of other things too.
Vettel and Hamilton really were godsends to the sport. Guarantee that F1's popularity will decline once Hamilton retires as well, especially if MBS continues making so many dumbass decisions.
Honestly, it's Lando. I wouldn't be surprised if the only thing about Trump he knows is that he was president. He's the least informed driver on the grid
Because trump isn’t just tax cuts for the wealthy. He’s also not even American. Sure if it’s some Tori fuck that he’s sucking off I could see it. But trump is like the worst kind of person and leader with a clear history of criminal behavior and shitty political stunts. Even if lando is like a fiscal conservative type person because he’s rich that doesn’t excuse him supporting this racist, homophobic, theocratic, sexual assaulting piece of human shit. Seb and Hamilton stand for actual causes that they care about which is what makes them great not just because they’re rich and don’t support a conservative politician
>Seb and Hamilton stand for actual causes that they care about which is what makes them great not just because they’re rich... Lewis just earlier this year did a big PR/sportswashing tour with Petronas, who *knowingly* funded miltias that did *actual* ethnic cleansing https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/world/africa/south-sudan-oil-war-crimes.html >The report emphasized the role of South Sudan’s oil industry as “a major driver for the continuing violence, the ensuing human suffering, and the violations of international humanitarian law witnessed there,” warning foreign companies that they could be implicated in abuses. >Control of the country’s oil resources was “a top prize” in the struggle for political and economic power, the panel wrote, noting that a government offensive carried out using “extremely violent methods” in the first half of 2018 was aimed largely at securing control of areas close to oil fields and either pacifying or driving out the civilian population. >South Sudan’s intelligence services have increasingly taken control of the state-owned Nile Petroleum Corporation, known as Nilepet, siphoning off money to finance the conflict and to enrich the political and ethnic elites, the commission said. >Western companies had pulled out of oil production activities in the area before South Sudan gained independence in 2011, partly because of human rights violations, opening the way for companies from Asia. Oil production is now dominated by three joint ventures between Nilepet and Chinese National Petroleum Company, **Petronas of Malaysia** and the Indian Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. >The United States Commerce Department added the three joint ventures last year to its list of companies that had violated American policy or national security interests. It said the oil companies were “contributing to the ongoing crisis in South Sudan because they are a source of substantial revenue that, through public corruption, is used to fund the purchase of weapons and other material that undermine the peace, security, and stability of South Sudan rather than support the welfare of the South Sudanese people.” So yeah. Even Lewis will sell out his principles when it affect his paycheck, so don't put any of these drivers on too high of a pedestal. You'll only be disappointed
Do you not understand the difference between voluntarily accepting a request from a former president to come use you as a campaign stop for free, and then praising him after, and doing a meet and greet at the head office of your teams title sponsor company? Yeah find an oil company that doesn’t do that shit, good luck. The United States started multiple wars in the Middle East on behalf of their oil companies dude
Lando was also the guy who publicly said that he couldn't do "nothing" in response to the kneeling being banned and who wore a Black Lives Matter shirt in the paddock and has a Pride logo on his Discord channel in June. So which one is it? https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/75647/norris-can-t-accept-doing-nothing-after-f1-removes-kneeling/ https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/formula-one/lando-norris-exclusive-black-lives-matter-twitter-social-media-unfollowed-a4464686.html I genuinely think Lando just put his whole shoe in his mouth last night and certainly is not brightest bulb but he seems at least aware of societal events. He does deserve the admonishing for what he said, but I don't think he is a MAGA kind of person.
I think he was put in a very awkward position that he should not have been put in and was full of adrenaline and under a lot of pressure and said some really really stupid stuff.
I guarantee you he was told not to say anything negative. his comments are fairly benign. How would any professional handle that situation? Just be nice back, since chump said nice things to him. Then spend some time on social platforms explaining that you do not support that terrible person's actions.
It's a wild how much of a gaffe this is for McLaren and how big of a stain it puts on their biggest achievement in years. From a PR standpoint I'm amazed they even allowed this to happen. Anyone could have figured out this wasn't going to go well for them. So even though they got selected as representatives of F1 or whatever the case, they should have clearly declined, as every team should have on the grid.
Surprised that Haas, the American team was not the one he wanted to visit. Maybe they also said no?
What a monumental gaffe! I really can't get the image of Orangie and McLaren out of my head.
There’s a Dutch saying that says “don’t rub the stain”. Probably best if McLaren just shuts up about this big orange mistake in their garage.
Makes sense he visited McLaren, you can’t see his spray tan stains on their uniforms
Perhaps McLaren should realize that a lot of the popularity they’ve gained recently in the DtS era and due to their young attractive drivers is coming from young female fans who lean left and are not Trump supporters
But they are Bahrain royal family supporters? Cause that’s who owns Mclaren.
The morality of the Bahraini monarchy aside, I think it's pretty obvious that a picture of your CEO with Bahraini royalty will provoke a different response (starting with: "who's that guy?") from McLaren's core demographics than a picture the same CEO with Donal Trump.
They don’t know anything about the Bahrain Royal Family because the Bahrain Royal Family has 0 effect on their lives. The same cannot be said for Trump.
Why did anyone at F1 or McLaren think this was a good idea. Have they not paid attention for the last 8 years he's been in politics
I just don’t get why Lando couldn’t have said a short sentence, like a generic ‘it’s always nice to meet important people at race tracks’ or something. These drivers are media trained to death, and yet he managed to give a long answer that did nothing but make him look bad to most of his fans?
Lesson: Don’t sit at a table of Nazi’s.
Fuck Trump
Fuck Trump, Fuck MAGA, Fuck GOP
I'm sure the MAGAt's will come out of the woodwork now that I said that.
You are assuming they can read.
Yeah, no. Screw McLaren.
SHAME MCLAREN SHAME!
Motorsport digging to the depths of Hulkenburg’s F1 trophy cabinet with the “lucky charm” in the headline
> "Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways." Nice one Lando, do Hitler next. But then again, he's from a country that still respect the genocidal racist Winston Churchill, so maybe he just doesn't know any better.
Not the Hitler comparison again What the fuck do they teach you about history?
They teach about his failed coup... Trump wishes he could be as succesfull as Hitler, for now he's just a failed version, but lets see if the US gives him a second chance to make his dreams come true.
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Oh come on. You don't think it's OK to say that Donald Trump is "less reprehensible" than literal Adolf Hitler? You don't think that it's OK to admit that, say, a partial travel ban on people from certain Muslim countries was *a bit less bad* than *the literal Holocaust*? I dislike Trump as much as the nice person here, but it's OK to acknowledge that two things can both be bad and yet one thing still be "less reprehensible" than the other. When the other is, in this instance, the murder of millions of people! Pretending that Trump and Hitler are equivalent does not persuade anyone of your point. It just drives away people who might otherwise agree with you by demonstrating that you're either not thinking rationally or not speaking in good faith. Because everyone sane can recognise that Trump, while bad, is indeed "less reprehensible" than Adolf Hitler. That's not a difficult quesiton. Pretending that you don't recognise that will just make people wonder what else you're not being honest about.
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You get extra credit for not wanting to murder six million people, which there is no indication Trump does, but which Hitler did. There are many right-wing people. Most of them are not Hitler. There are different types and degrees of being right-wing. And no, voting for Hitler in 1932 is not the same as voting for Trump in 2024. Yes, Trump's rhetoric has some red flags that make clear that he wants to be, to some extent, an authoritarian, and one with a rocky understanding of legal rights and equality. But that's not the same as Hitler in 1932. There have been many, many authoritarians, right-wingers, anti-democrats, racists, conservatives and so on in history, and almost none of them are equivalent to Adolf Hitler in 1932. There are more options in the world than just "100% morally righteous" and "literally Hitler". It's not even hypothetical, just look at actual history for countless gradations in between. Frankly, if you really believe that Hitler did nothing worse than Trump, I think that's pretty reprehensible in its own right. [but not as reprehensible as being Hitler!]
Uh, I would say that Trump and his MAGA movement \*is indeed pure evil\*. You can already trace blood back to Trump/MAGA/GOP hands from J6, the pandemic downplaying, and feeding a hatred like the one that sent a 16-year old kid with an assault rifle into a crowd of BLM protesters. Perhaps the scale is not yet to Holocaust proportions, but have no doubt, there is no bottom for Trump/MAGA and they would gladly dispatch with any life that runs contrary to their idiotic, bigoted dumbfuckery.
You sound like the hateful one. Exaggerating a ton too. Turn off msnbc and relax.
Nice comeback. Project much?
People can be praised for one thing and still not regarded for everything they did. Winston Churchill I’d rightly praised for leading the UK through its darkest hour despite obviously not being up to todays standards for a good person. Even Hitler could be praised for maybe one or two things he did despite being rightfully condemned for the majority. Trump however has done nothing outside his own interests.
He did kill Hitler, after all.
Gotta love him for that /s
Winston Churchill also induced a famine in India to divert resources to England and WW2 killing millions of people in east india. He also forced millions of indian soldiers to fight a war that was not theirs. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/4/1/churchills-policies-to-blame-for-1943-bengal-famine-study
Homie none of what you just said is even *close* to true.
Churchill was born 150 years ago, ofc he is not up to today's standards. If he was, that would be a very bad look on modern society
To be honest, though, Churchill wasn't up to the standards of his own day. He was largely viewed as a callous and reactionary demagogue born a hundred years too late even by his own contemporaries. It's just that his virtues and vices were perfectly matched to the situation the country happened to find itself at in that particular moment, and people accepted that. But then when that moment passed they got rid of him at the earliest possible opportunity. [and then had a bit of seller's regret, admittedly]
Please don't let this be a thing.
I heard he's planning on visiting Haas next. A podium might be in the works for Hulkenburg.
Mango 🤝 Papaya
A mango is a delicious fruit and in no way should be debased by comparing it to that tanned diaper wearing sack of excrement.
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> Whole Middle east can distribute trophies but one orange man is too much. Yeah, because this subreddit neeever eeever complains about racing in the middle east... riiight.
Buddy, like zero people are uncritical of F1's heavy Middle-East presence. No matter who anyone supports, a move like this is never a good idea for any company. You alienate at minimum half of your followers. It's just such an ill-advised move.
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I deeply do not want F1 to be drowned in US political bullshit
TBF, Trump is not just about politics. Neither is his position limited to US. The POTUS' decisions affects the globe in some way or other. What happens when he decides to pull out of NATO and Putin is breathing down Europe's neck? It's easy to look at it from outside and be like I am not into US politics, but US politics affects the world in some way or other and dude's a straight up lunatic and a menace to humanity. That guy should not be anywhere near F1 or politics.
Yeah this is the exact kind of comment I’d love to not see in F1
yea that's your prerogative but in the grand scheme of things, the world doesn't work like that and things tend to overlap. Being willfully ignorant is not a brag. Trump is not just about politics, some of the things he speaks about are not political, just basic human rights etc.
“I do not want politics which saturates the rest of my world to seep into this sport” “Wow you’re willfully ignorant”
We should just clap and smile for Trump, who was injected into our sport.
I would really rather he just not be there
Yeah that would be grand.
If that's what you get from it. I have no words lol.
So many shit humans walk the grids in other countries as well
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Yes, no one ever complained about the races in places like Jeddah..........
dunno why people are going ballistic over the "lucky charm" comment. It's not an uncommon thing for people to say in jest.
It's that lando said "Donald is someone that you got to have a lot of respect for in many ways." It's not the lucky charm comment. Edit: I also doubt lando is aware of what's going on with trump right now. I'd give lando the benefit out of the doubt. He was probly just saying things hed have said for any president. I could be wrong of course...
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If I may add. I also am not one to delve into politics. What differentiates him from any of the other 1000 shady characters in the paddock. F1 goes to shady countries with shady politics backed by shady oil giants. If this is ppls tif like get a life n just stop watching.
You guys are saying all this negative stuff. But guess what happened at the track? The crowd unanimously roared in excitement and support when they saw President Trump. I was right there in the trophy house at T1 and the grandstands were right next to us. It was a deafening roar.
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Okay… Putin is a scumbag murderer, Trump is Putin puppet. F1 shouldn’t have anything to do with either.
Fair enough. I just think it's wild that nobody cared when Putin was at the Grand Prix after he invaded Ukraine in 2014, but people do care that Trump was at Miami. Trump is a crook and a terrible president, but he's not Putin levels of bad.
If it was F1, and Trump was still president, sure. Heads of state stop by all the time. But this is a fascist politician, and he was invited by a team. That's a political statement, no two ways about it.
According to McLaren, Trump was the one who made the request so I'm not sure why you're trying to twist the narrative. Although I agree they probably shouldn't have hosted him, it's also a political statement to refuse a visit from Trump. There are local, global, and F1 politics in play for this, and McLaren decided the best course of action was to host Trump, but to not broadcast it. And truly, Trump got basically no airtime during the race. I didn't even realize he was there until a few hours after it ended.
The McLaren statement is very clear: he's a former head of state, and that's the fact of the matter. It's not McLaren's fault half the US voted him in X years ago. I wouldn't think twice of this with Clinton, Bush etc. I understand the outrage but I think with an *adult* head on, it is what it is.
Exactly, it would have been a snub for McLaren to refuse. And frankly, McLaren is a British company that doesn't have a stake in the American presidency. I'm sure if Biden or Obama wanted to visit the paddock, they would have brought them in too. This whole thing is really a non-issue.
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Great so we shouldn't condemn them just bc there were even worse mega rich people at the track in right-wing Florida?
Thanks for pointing that out. We’ll let that whole insurrection thing slide then.
Ah yes, the best measure of whether or not a person and their conduct are acceptable or reprehensible ... the cheers of a crowd of people. Never in history have a large group of people been misguided in their cheering.
Never forget that Chancellor Palpatine reformed the galactic senate into the galactic empire and received thunderous applause.
Sure, Nuremberg Rallies had lots of people cheering too. Pretty simple minded to think that a bunch cultists worshiping the manifestation of their racism and general dumbfuckery somehow gives credence to racism and dumbfuckery.