2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[f1jcw]

here we go again "British media"

[AeroDynamic]

I think people are conflating two different things. He came back to social media, its not like an announcement has been made about his F1 career. Not continuing in F1 in your professional life has no connection to using social media in the future of your personal life Coming back on social media, who would even think people were speculating that return?

One has to assume on balance he will probably come back. It's not a guarantee though and has been wide open. People take time to contemplate their futures and decisions.

Pending the outcome of the FIA investigation and draft proposals, and what outcomes the conclusions lead to, its not a given he will continue. But my feeling is he will because the FIA investigation sounds like they are doing the right kind of due diligence, and are supposedly looking at Masi's future in the Race Director role.

For me, I won't be surprised if he continues or retires, I'm waiting to see what the FIA's next steps are going to be for the new season, and the implications that has for Hamilton's decision to continue or not. It's clear he wants to as long as he has confidence things will be better from the FIA after last year.

[proteus]

Lewis never said he going to retire, and it wasn't the first time he went silent on social media either, but I guess creating a huge suspense kept the clicks going over the winter.

On Hamilton's side though, the isolation is always good to refocus oneself. You know like in the kungfu movies when the protagonist trains in the mountains for 5 years to come back ten times stronger? Yeah that kind of vibe. It will be a different Lewis we see this year. How different? We will have to wait and see.

I never said it was Lewis who was hinting about the retirement. It was Toto who gave some strange statements and then some people which grabbed them and ran them in the circle day by day. I have pointed out right away that this mumbo/jumbo is silly and got some unfavourable replies from some of circle runners.

Whatever happened happened, the important thing is that he has returned and that he is taking another shot for the title.

[proteus]

I think people are conflating two different things. He came back to social media, its not like an announcement has been made about his F1 career. Not continuing in F1 in your professional life has no connection to using social media in the future of your personal life Coming back on social media, who would even think people were speculating that return?

One has to assume on balance he will probably come back. It's not a guarantee though and has been wide open. People take time to contemplate their futures and decisions.

Pending the outcome of the FIA investigation and draft proposals, and what outcomes the conclusions lead to, its not a given he will continue. But my feeling is he will because the FIA investigation sounds like they are doing the right kind of due diligence, and are supposedly looking at Masi's future in the Race Director role.

For me, I won't be surprised if he continues or retires, I'm waiting to see what the FIA's next steps are going to be for the new season, and the implications that has for Hamilton's decision to continue or not. It's clear he wants to as long as he has confidence things will be better from the FIA after last year.

And this is the kind of circle running i was talking about. Just why?

[turbof1]

Why don't we just wait if he eventually gets in the car? Then we know

[AeroDynamic]

I think people are conflating two different things. He came back to social media, its not like an announcement has been made about his F1 career. Not continuing in F1 in your professional life has no connection to using social media in the future of your personal life Coming back on social media, who would even think people were speculating that return?

One has to assume on balance he will probably come back. It's not a guarantee though and has been wide open. People take time to contemplate their futures and decisions.

Pending the outcome of the FIA investigation and draft proposals, and what outcomes the conclusions lead to, its not a given he will continue. But my feeling is he will because the FIA investigation sounds like they are doing the right kind of due diligence, and are supposedly looking at Masi's future in the Race Director role.

For me, I won't be surprised if he continues or retires, I'm waiting to see what the FIA's next steps are going to be for the new season, and the implications that has for Hamilton's decision to continue or not. It's clear he wants to as long as he has confidence things will be better from the FIA after last year.

And this is the kind of circle running i was talking about. Just why?

I don't know what you're getting hung on. He's give one media interview after what happened, and when it was put to him about coming back this season, he said "We'll see about next year."

Mercedes, Toto, and Hamilton are all reportedly very angry with what happened. I don't think Toto has been making up anything about what it might mean if things go on as they did last year – and he's not alone in that, a number of teams and drivers are not pleased racing under Masi and have advocated for change, including Red Bull.

The only thing Toto has done if anything, is played that position to maximum effect to push the FIA to take things seriously. Which, if they had not done, nothing would have changed.. despite everyone, no matter what team or driver you like, seems to support.

I really don't think Toto has done anything that Christian Horner or Helmut Marko wouldn't do, by two fold. I use them as examples as they provided the strongest and most repulsive examples of manipulating the race director and media alike with their unhinged hocus-pocus.

He has made it clear in an interview in Monza that he has thoughts about retiring going back some years. He could retire. It seems less likely the more time passes but the media was actually right to speculate about it, along with others. The media speculating so much about it, seems to aggravate detractors more than anyone else I've noticed, as an observation. Which doesn't make sense to me, they're the people I'd expect to pay no notice or even remotely care about what he does.

[cooken]

Lewis never said he going to retire, and it wasn't the first time he went silent on social media either, but I guess creating a huge suspense kept the clicks going over the winter.

On Hamilton's side though, the isolation is always good to refocus oneself. You know like in the kungfu movies when the protagonist trains in the mountains for 5 years to come back ten times stronger? Yeah that kind of vibe. It will be a different Lewis we see this year. How different? We will have to wait and see.

I never said it was Lewis who was hinting about the retirement. It was Toto who gave some strange statements and then some people which grabbed them and ran them in the circle day by day. I have pointed out right away that this mumbo/jumbo is silly and got some unfavourable replies from some of circle runners.

Whatever happened happened, the important thing is that he has returned and that he is taking another shot for the title.

No, it wasn't. The speculation came immediately after Lewis's statement (something to the effect of "we'll see about next year") during the podium interview, and it came from the media. What followed was the media asking Toto about Lewis' plans, and he gave a typical non committal answer.

But you do you pal, keep the evil Toto narrative alive and kicking.

[proteus]

Lewis never said he going to retire, and it wasn't the first time he went silent on social media either, but I guess creating a huge suspense kept the clicks going over the winter.

On Hamilton's side though, the isolation is always good to refocus oneself. You know like in the kungfu movies when the protagonist trains in the mountains for 5 years to come back ten times stronger? Yeah that kind of vibe. It will be a different Lewis we see this year. How different? We will have to wait and see.

I never said it was Lewis who was hinting about the retirement. It was Toto who gave some strange statements and then some people which grabbed them and ran them in the circle day by day. I have pointed out right away that this mumbo/jumbo is silly and got some unfavourable replies from some of circle runners.

Whatever happened happened, the important thing is that he has returned and that he is taking another shot for the title.

No, it wasn't. The speculation came immediately after Lewis's statement (something to the effect of "we'll see about next year") during the podium interview, and it came from the media. What followed was the media asking Toto about Lewis' plans, and he gave a typical non committal answer.

But you do you pal, keep the evil Toto narrative alive and kicking.

And this is the typical reaction of someone who is convinced that everybody with a different opinion is evil and lying....sadly more and more common occurrence across every debate taken in the world lately...

[cooken]

I never said it was Lewis who was hinting about the retirement. It was Toto who gave some strange statements and then some people which grabbed them and ran them in the circle day by day. I have pointed out right away that this mumbo/jumbo is silly and got some unfavourable replies from some of circle runners.

Whatever happened happened, the important thing is that he has returned and that he is taking another shot for the title.

No, it wasn't. The speculation came immediately after Lewis's statement (something to the effect of "we'll see about next year") during the podium interview, and it came from the media. What followed was the media asking Toto about Lewis' plans, and he gave a typical non committal answer.

But you do you pal, keep the evil Toto narrative alive and kicking.

And this is the typical reaction of someone who is convinced that everybody with a different opinion is evil and lying....sadly more and more common occurrence across every debate taken in the world lately...

I didn't imply that you were evil, I implied that you think Toto is evil.

I'm not sure how this is a matter of opinion. I corrected you on a matter of fact. Toto did not start or peddle the retirement discussion.

The saddest of all, belligerent misinformation.

[proteus]

No, it wasn't. The speculation came immediately after Lewis's statement (something to the effect of "we'll see about next year") during the podium interview, and it came from the media. What followed was the media asking Toto about Lewis' plans, and he gave a typical non committal answer.

But you do you pal, keep the evil Toto narrative alive and kicking.

And this is the typical reaction of someone who is convinced that everybody with a different opinion is evil and lying....sadly more and more common occurrence across every debate taken in the world lately...

I didn't imply that you were evil, I implied that you think Toto is evil.

I'm not sure how this is a matter of opinion. I corrected you on a matter of fact. Toto did not start or peddle the retirement discussion.

The saddest of all, belligerent misinformation.

He stated that he isnt sure if Lewis will continue and that he hopes he does. This statement set the motion for retirement speculation, or it atleast fueled and inflated the rumours.

I would guess a driver cant just jump out of his contract so easily. But that is just me.

[Neuron]

I would guess a driver cant just jump out of his contract so easily. But that is just me.

Only penalty which is available is a money - which is not something that guy like him would care about...

[Jolle]

I would guess a driver cant just jump out of his contract so easily. But that is just me.

Only penalty which is available is a money - which is not something that guy like him would care about...

It all depends of the terms in the contract of course. Hill's contract with Jordan comes to mind how closed up it can be, he had to drive while he really didn't want to anymore during his last season.
I expect Mercedes having a "Lauda clause" in there, that the driver can retire at any moment (and of course may not drive for another team during the length of the broken contract). Rosberg had no troubles for instance quiting after 2016 while just half a year prior signed an extension.

[Just_a_fan]

I would guess a driver cant just jump out of his contract so easily. But that is just me.

Only penalty which is available is a money - which is not something that guy like him would care about...

It all depends of the terms in the contract of course. Hill's contract with Jordan comes to mind how closed up it can be, he had to drive while he really didn't want to anymore during his last season.
I expect Mercedes having a "Lauda clause" in there, that the driver can retire at any moment (and of course may not drive for another team during the length of the broken contract). Rosberg had no troubles for instance quiting after 2016 while just half a year prior signed an extension.

Ultimately, if the driver says "I don't want to drive anymore" there's really not much a team can do. Sure, they can force him to continue with his contract, but they can't force him to perform. They'd soon drop him if he just drove 5 seconds off the pace, for example. No point keeping a driver that doesn't want to be there. Sure, they could make him stay "in contract" until the contract expired, but it would be toxic and detrimental to the team as a whole. Better to let them go if they want to. The difference these days from the Hill/Jordan days is the internet. Social media pressure, especially on sponsors, would soon have an unhappy, deliberately underperforming, driver out of the team.

[ringo]

Lewis is back on instagram.
He didnt say he was back to racing.
Note he is in the grand canyon with sweats on.
Not at brackley in a racing suit.

But i feel redbull want him to be back. They want a benchmark to race the right wY this time.

As for the hate Toto is receiving. I do not understand it. He has not said anything untoward since masigate.

[zibby43]

If Lewis wasn't committed to racing next year, we would know by now.

Mercedes would need time to prepare the next driver, etc.

I can't believe anyone is seriously entertaining the possibility he would leave it this late. If he was leaving, it would have been announced in a similar time frame as Nico.