Hamilton apologises for comments to nephew on social media

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton has offered his “deepest apologies” for a social media post in which he complained about his nephew’s choice of Christmas present.

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Hamilton posted a series of updates in which he said:

“Yesterday I was playing around with my nephew and realised that my words were inappropriate so I removed the post. I meant no harm and did not mean to offend anyone at all. I love that my nephew feels free to express himself as we all should.

“My deepest apologies for my behaviour as I realise it is really not acceptable for anyone, no matter where you are from, to marginalise or stereotype anyone.

“I have always been in support of anyone living their life exactly how they wish and I hope I can be forgiven for this lapse in judgement.”

Comment of the day

Did the 2017 F1 season get less entertaining as the season progressed?

The first half of the season has better average which falls down steeply in the second half especially from summer break. I think it has more to do with championship fight getting diluted as the season progressed and getting over with four to five races remaining (read: had Vettel and Ferrari not fumbled, it could have been a different story).
@Rahulm

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Keith Collantine
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159 comments on “Hamilton apologises for comments to nephew on social media”

  1. Sigh! What has the world come to? People are offended by the most trivial of things. I suppose that’s the price for success, fame and social media presence.

    1. +1

      It’s ridiculous, you can’t even fart without offending someone or their human rights. It’s clearly light hearted ‘banter’ if you like. I’d have said the exact same thing. It’s gotten way out of hand to the point I fear there’s no turning back.

      What a mess the human race has become. (Human, as-in man, woman or neutral or whatever it is now.. just in case I offend someone)

      1. Joke* not mess.. definitely joke.

      2. @blackmamba +1
        @nemo87 +1

        Since the clip is public, the only questionable thing Lewis did was to share a video of his nephew without the kid’s or the parents consent.
        Personally I wouldn’t bat an eye even if Lewis was serious about the content of his words, but as nemo87 said, Lewis was just teasing.

        Cotd Yes, at all levels, racing championship, everything and this phenomenon has been a trend, particularly since Pirelli, who tend to favour the stronger team by going conservative with tyre selections.

        1. Those parents should get a good public blame themselves. Kid felt under sexual propaganda. That is their fault.

        2. That’s my biggest concern (with the world today), @peartree.
          Why does every (brain-)fart need to be shared on Social Media; it’s a disease/addiction in itself.

    2. Political correctness at its finest. There is virtually no statement that will please everyone or won’t offend someone. A great idea of granting women and minority groups more rights has gotten completely out of control.

    3. Nope, that’s the price you pay for forgetting to keep a separation between your private life and your public persona and as far as Hamilton is of a generation that has trouble making that distinction in general, here’s a very good lesson in not confusing your family and friends with your (sigh) personal brand.

      1. I’m curious, which generation are you from?

        1. Let’s say I remember the world before the internet

      2. Perfect! On top of that Lewis apologised, clearly admitting his mistake. He must be part of the ‘world gone mad’ then.

    4. It’s health and safety gone mad Stu…

    5. Live by twitter, die by twitter.
      No other driver strives for such a high profile on social media, while being totally inept with it.
      He really needs professional help from here on.

      And for all that his showing on the BBC sportsman of the year was dismal. As I say, professional help is the way forwards.

    6. @blackmamba

      People are offended by the most trivial of things

      That’s exactly my reaction when I see people up in arms about a boy wanting a dress for Christmas. If that’s what he wants and he gets pleasure out of it then what’s the harm?

      1. No harm in a princess dress but I’m sure if the kid was dressed in a grass skirt with a spear or as red indian there are other people out there ready and waiting to be enraged.
        We once raised our sons to be hunters and warriors so I can understand Lewis having a natural urge to see a young boy in the family showing more macho tendancies.
        His two crimes are not being a parent himself hence the lack of support ‘ teasing uncle’ and not keeping it private.

        1. Agreed completely – apart from one tiny little thing: yes we did used to raise our children to be hunters and warriors, but we also used to have double digit numbers of children to ensure enough survived to look after us in our old age. But that nitpick aside, agreed

      2. @keithcollantine

        That’s exactly my reaction when I see people up in arms about a boy wanting a dress for Christmas. If that’s what he wants and he gets pleasure out of it then what’

        Couldn’t agree more!

    7. Good that he recognised the mistake, deleted the video and apologised. But it’s not trivial and it’s not banter.

  2. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
    27th December 2017, 0:13

    Hamilton should be stripped off his 4 world titles and subsequently suspended and forced to attend diversity training.

    1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
      27th December 2017, 1:46

      Not to mention his pole record. And he should be made to wear a purple and pink outfit, while carrying a pink wand with a heart on it.

    2. Or just strip him of his car which gave him an unfair advantage for those 4 years. Put someone like Stroll in the seat so he can win 4 championships

      1. You don’t pay much attention to f1, do you…

      2. Right– that’s why Rosberg beat Hamilton 4 years running, because of the car… No, wait, that’s why Bottas beat Hamilton this year..?

        Oh. You’re trolling. Never mind.

    3. I’m thinking he’ll get off easy… maybe just a grid penalty in Australia.

    4. No, he shouldn’t. He said it absolutely right. Kid shouldn’t even think about his sexual preferences until 18-20. Guess Britain needs same law as we have here. Sexual propaganda should be allowed between kids, therefore in public.

      1. Kids until 18-20??

      2. How are the things he’s wearing related to the kids, supposed, sexual preference? Do gay people walk around in princess dresses? I haven’t seen much of that.

      3. So… a boy wearing what is traditionally considered female clothing is “sexual propaganda”, but I’m guessing that a boy wearing what is traditionally considered male clothing is not?

        How about we just let kids wear whatever they want without ridiculing them in private or public? Heck, not just kids, that should apply to all people.

  3. @nemo87

    Yep, people are ridiculous today & offended by everything (mostly feminists who push against things constantly when they are “offended” by the most simple things)

    If I was Lewis I would have said the same damn thing but obviously wouldn’t put it on social media because people will get offended…lol

    1. Before some idiot comes as says something about white men bla bla & older white men/patriarchy. I’m a 33 year old Canadian with parents from Trinidad (so mostly black) & people need to be adults & not be offended/hurt by WORDS

    2. I would have said: “…If I was Lewis I would have said the same damn thing but obviously wouldn’t put it on social media because haters will spin whatever you do against you….”

      It is Lewis fault for not respecting his own privacy. Just because you are a celebrity, it does not mean that you should expose your private life 24/7.

    3. Do you understand feminism at all? An effort to make the world equal for all. If nobody stands up to things, they’ll continue to be seen as normal when they really shouldn’t be. People are correct to pull him up about it, but he’s apologised and realised he made a mistake. The case should be opened with the pointing out of the error and closed with the apology. No reason to marginalise anybody else over it!

      1. @djdaveyp87 Feminism as the pure hatred of men or feminism as calling out unfair and illogical discrepancies between the rights of men and women?
        The problem is not to make fun, to tease, the problem is to get offended. The world is getting offended.
        Why should you feel offended for being your own self? Makes no sense, are you ashamed of yourself, that’s your problem, own your personality. The problem lies with the stupid people of insta, self righteous opinionated jealous soulless people. Lewis, he was teasing his nephew so what? The kid was fine, why are you offended? Only you don’t like it, don’t look for trouble where there’s none. Social justice warriors are intolerant.
        @davef1 That’s a pretty good answer. I see some family teasing, to be perfectly honest, I saw no malice, I saw a happy kid.

        I actually feel offended that he apologised for his comment to his nephew, now I want an apology of an apology. He’s wrong to apologise and even if he wasn’t teasing his nephew he’d be wrong to apologise because it would mean nothing at all.

        1. Agree @Peartree. The apology legitimised the the lunacy if it all.

          1. OOops. Fat fingers small phone. Forgive the typos…

      2. @djdaveyp87

        Yes i understand modern day feminism VERY well. Meaning that probably less than 10% off women who claim to be feminists are actually about equality. You see the other 90% want a la carte equality & want to pic k& choose equality. There isn’t a damn women who I’ve dated who actually wants to pay for anything, which they should if they want true equality when dating. I have no issue paying but then when you expect me to be old school & open doors & pay for dates don’t get mad when I enjoy women being traditional/courteous as well.

        Lesson to learned, when men actually put their foot down today, women realize when dating, that they really don’t want to pay a damn thing a want to be “treated like a lady & spoiled”. So they are expected to “feminists” & pay their equal part, they quickly drop the feminist BS.

        1. There are times when women are openly being treated worse than men though – for example, in the UK the new contracts introduced in 2016 for junior doctors joining the NHS, according to the government’s own review panel “indicate that women junior doctors will have inferior conditions of work under the new contract” when compared to a male individual with the same qualifications on the same contract. The government, whilst having to admit that the contract did discriminate against women, still refused to change those terms and simply forced the medical profession to accept it.

          There are still large chunks of the UK economy where pay differentials are pretty substantial between men and women – in the financial services sector, for example, the average man earns 36% more than the average woman does. In most professions, women in a managerial grade will earn about 27% less than the comparable man does, whilst men are still disproportionately likely to be promoted over a woman (men tending to hold around 66% of more senior management positions). I can’t help but feel that you have taken a few highly subjective situations and then proceeded to twist them to the interpretation you want to have.

      3. @djdaveyp87

        The idea that women want everything equal for all is a very nice idea but I’ve realized long ago that some times women live in a fantasy & they would like the world to be how each of them see’s fit (which I why I think so many people complain & are offended today). It’s not at all realistic & it will never be like that.

        I can go on & on but when a women complains about patriarchy & men or whatever it is. I always say, your so spoiled because women have NEVER EVER had it as bad a black people in America, especially Black men. Women were never attacked by dogs, murdered & hated the way blacks were long ago. Even today how many white women are constantly profiled by police & shot (Not a simple topic because black americans have gone backwards in society & are making life more difficult for themselves).

      4. Sorry djdavey you have had to put up with such ignorant comments.

        I think these people need to either; a) understand that things that seem innocuous can be harmful to society; b) understand feminism is the equal treatment of women and men (which is not radical, and taking a small sample of radical feminisists as representative of all feminisists is silly); or c) go back to their safe spaces :)

        1. At least somebody understands @roodda thanks

        2. @roodda
          Go back & read my comment it’s not at all offensive. Women in America have never had it as bad as black men 60 years ago & today.

          Women claim to be feminists and say they want equality. In reality it’s only when it suits them because when dating all of a sudden almost all women become old school and traditional & don’t pay for anything but then get mad when men expect them to be more traditional as well.

          1. 1) you don’t get to decide what is and isn’t offensive. If someone cracked a joke targeted at a certain group of people and someone from that group said “that’s racist” then they’re probably right. It’s not our position, particularly as white males, to say what is and isn’t when it comes to diversity. Your dating experiences don’t represent all females viewpoints or bias. Besides, I’ve been on dates when the girl has paid. Guess that makes ALL MEN lazy and selfish eh? Let’s be a bit more sensible and realise there are many shades of grey to these things.

      5. Whaat? How is telling a boy not wear girls clothes undermines women? Are u mad?

      1. Doesn’t meant women were mistreated or marginalised because of who they were. The results of this is still being felt today.

        1. *Weren’t mistreated

    4. The reason not to put it on the internet has nothing to do with “people being offended” @s2g-unit.

      The first reason not to put it online, is that it uses Lewis’ huge following to make fun (in a quite unsensitive way) of a relative, who certainly had not given his consent (even if he could have done so) to that.

  4. Damn, was hoping the kid would’ve responded with ‘howcome you’re got a nose stud and earrings’.

    1. Haha, I would have expected the same thing.

      It is incredible how nowadays people are so easily offended by any little thing, however Lewis making his private life public should expect those kind of comments. I would have said the same thing to the kid, but preferably without wearing the earrings.

    2. ;) And then apologise via Facebook for Kids ;)

    3. Exactly, jokes should be jokes.

  5. That whole Hamilton thing perfectly sums up why I no longer bother to use my Twitter account and keep Facebook to close friends only. Most people on social media are entirely fine, but there’s a disproportionately loud and influential collection of two groups… those filled with hatred for [insert whatever thing here], and those who are seemingly unable to function unless they’ve been offended by something, and are therefore given the opportunity to repeatedly tweet about how outraged they are.

    And from a topical, motorsport perspective, I hope all young up-and-coming kart drivers are being given training in social media eggshell-walking, alongside whatever driver coaching they get. Given the semi-permanent nature of the internet, an off-the-cuff comment made now could end up derailing their career when some professional offended person dredges it up and makes a scene about it in 2024…

    1. In 2024 a world champion resign because one driver had the courage to speak his feeling which was hurt when he got overtaken. And get worse since three other drivers claim #MeToo

    2. +1 Exactly the same for me. Facebook I barely use, and twitter’s so dull. In fact, I actually spend more time a day checking the comments here :)

    3. I deleted my Facebook account last week pretty much because of that.

      Heikki Kovalainen once posted this tweet (he was obviously forced to explain that the last hashtag was not to be taken seriously):

      Happy International Women’s Day to all the ladies out there! #WomensDay #NearlyAsGoodAsMen

      I think that F1 could and should do much more to make all kinds of fans and drivers feel welcome but I also believe that it needs more drivers like Ricciardo, Hamilton, Raikkonen or Kovalainen.

      1. This I would say is rubbish and very insensitive that last hashtag is a backhanded compliment.

        Ricciardo and Raikkonen yes, because they are themselves and not trying to get people to like them.

  6. He made a mistake and apologised. What more can he do? Humans aren’t perfect. You can’t possibly have every single person you’d offend in your mind whilst living your life, no matter how hard you try. Give him a break!

    1. Now, now… this is the enlightened 21st century. Common sense and reason have no place in any discussion about gender or racial stereotypes.

    2. I think it is really good that he has said that “I love that my nephew feels free to express himself as we all should.” This ‘incident’ could be a great basis for discussion about diversity in the F1 fraternity… which sadly will not happen.

    3. What the hell did he do? Since when is it a good thing for a boy to wear girls clothes? Whats wrong with telling a kid dresses are for girls?

      1. Because in this day and age we all have freedom to express ourselves as we like, free from judgement and prejudice.

        I’m a big Lewis Hamilton fan, always have been and I am also a feminist. The whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Lewis simply made a mistake, was made aware of the error and apologised. Because we only become aware of these issues when they happen or we are educated about it. Diversity was not a big part of education when Lewis went to school. We all make mistakes, most of us learn from them and move on. Unfortunately, Lewis lives in the public eye so a bigger deal is made of it.

        1. Shortly before apologising, Hamilton liked a whole bunch of “political correctness gone mad” and “you did nothing wrong”-style tweets from his fans. That is who he is, and probably what he still thinks. The apology was just PR, probably written on his behalf.

          I used to be a fan of his too but I’ve grown tired of him in the last few years and I think this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. His nationality is about the only reason I have to support him any more, and that’s just about the weakest reason going. Not that it matters one jot who I support, but still.

          1. Correction: he liked those tweets after apologising. Enough said.

      2. The thing wrong, is that it is wrong. There is nothing bad with a kid wanting to have a nice looking princess dress, regardless of weather its a girl or a boy @flyingbasil.

        And off course putting this out there to his huge audience would be pretty unkind to his young family member – you shouldn’t put footage of people online without them being fine with that, especially if your instagram is as much a PR channel as Lewis’ channel is.

        But since Lewis took it down, said sorry etc, I don’t think there is that much to discuss after that. He made a mistake, tried to correct it as best as he could quickly.

  7. I find it fanatstic that many lewis-fans will be outraged, that the “media” shames a fourty-something tax-evader, who dresses like a drugged peacock on a regular basis and wears hair from wherever on his head is fine with him screaming at his 5 year old nephew for wearing a princess dress. I found it esspecially charming that the guy didn´t apologize to his nephew but “anyone” who has been offended. His fans will cheer for him if he evades taxes, lies to the stewarts, hits his team-mate off the road or argues that he would have been at a DISADVANTAGE if he had attended a publicity event where EVERY OTHER DRIVER was present… That guy isn´t in the top 40 people of Formula 1 i´d like to have a beer with… Altough arguably in the top 6 of drivers who drive for f1 right now…

    1. You would evade tax if only you had the brains or the money to do so……

      1. No, I don’t!
        Tax Evasion is illegal and should be punished.
        Tax Avoidance is legal and mostly the result of Politicians (the guys responsible for the tax code) ‘not having brains’.

      2. @Damon85

        I´m sorry, it may sound a little old fashioned but i regard you or lewis evading taxes not as a benchmark of your brain and money, but as a benchmark of your scum-ness.

  8. Political correctness is just a term thrown around by people who don’t want have anything constructive to say when it comes to diversity. The reason this has caused a reaction is because boys and girls should be free to dress up however they like and play with various toys as they please, without judgment. Lewis is saying boys should only do “boy” things. And he’s using his platform to spread that message, which is more naive on his part than malicious, but the “I’m sorry for causing offence” shows he doesn’t really understand the harm these things can cause.

    1. Carlos Alfonzo
      27th December 2017, 2:23

      Of course he doesn’t understand.
      He’s #blessed

    2. Well said @roodda

      The sad level of responses on this page alone shows how much further so many people have to go to learn to accept everyone for who they are, and not force their prejudices and lack of understanding on others.

    3. Oh yeah– his nephew was obviously distraught. I could tell by the grin on his face.

      The problem with political correctness is that it’s a disease of ideology. Once you start down the path, there’s nowhere to stop, until no one is allowed to have a differing opinion.

      I suggest that you track down George Carlin’s bit about Shell Shock. The short version is that once upon a time, we had this harsh, descriptive term called “shell shock” which explained the issues soldiers coming home from the front had. It was short, to the point, and conveyed meaning.

      Over time, the term has been watered down from “shell shock” to “combat/battle fatigue” (WWII), “Operational Fatigue” (Korean War), and “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” (now, “Syndrome”) or PTSD/PTSS, which conveys absolutely nothing meaningful about the experiences of combat veterans.

      That’s the gift of political correctness– No one says what they mean, and no one understands what’s being said.

      1. He’s a kid – they don’t often know they’re being made fun of/exploited of, but down the line they’ll have an idea of gender roles and that’s where this becomes difficult.

        That’s not politically correct, that’s evolution of diagnosis. People still use the term shell shock and also use PTSD. PC doesn’t mean anything at all. Replace it with “being decent” or “kindness” and you can see what utter nonsense the “PC gone mad!” noise is.

        1. Michael Brown (@)
          27th December 2017, 20:10

          If you demand equality of feelings, it’s simply not nonsense

      2. grat, your comparison with the term “shell shock” is pretty poor, since quite often the term was used in a dismissive manner by the senior ranks of the British Army in order to cover up the condition in the first place (before later banning the medical corps from recognising the condition and pressurising medical journals into censoring any mention of the condition).

      3. It’s worth pointing out that by changing the name “shell shocked” to “ptsd” means that people who have it from things other than heavy shelling don’t have to have an entirely separate disease, and research into the same condition has come on in leaps and strides since we’ve consolidated the strands of research. If the price for significantly better care for our veterans is that the man on the street has a more medical, less descriptive term to remember, and the builder who suffered it after his crane collapsed also gets that better care – then I for one will take it!

        The less descriptive name problem has a solution too. Education. Which also solves the problem of people who like to say they suffer from things they don’t- once you know how to look up diseases, you can tell the difference between someone with and someone claiming ptsd inside of a minute. That is the true gift of political correctness in the case of the naming of shell shock

  9. Sundar Srinivas Harish
    27th December 2017, 2:08

    I wonder, has a father-son duo ever won the Daytona 24 and Sebring 12? Considering how GM has upped its racing programme in the last couple of years, I wouldn’t be surprised if they go for a father-son win gimmick after getting the brothers win gimmick this year.

  10. Why did Lewis delete it in the first place? That was a nice and fun video about uncle and nephew.

    1. Carlos Alfonzo
      27th December 2017, 2:22

      Would he have made the same video with his niece?
      No?
      Then he was being sexist.

      1. How do you know that he wouldn’t?

    2. @ruliemaulana I genuinely agree with what you said.

    3. Probably because he came to his senses, and realised that a private video like that should not be posted to a global audience.

  11. All of these comments are on a social media ‘incident’. Stop feeding the beast.

  12. Boys don’t wear kilts either.

  13. Social media and social justice warriors are one of today’s major cancers.

  14. What if Daniel Ricciardo does leave Red Bull and Sainz Jr wants to stay at the rapidly improving Renault? Tossing Gasly in there would be a repeat of what happened with Kvyat. Hartley may be an option but he would, most likely, be thrashed by Verstappen. Sergio Perez or Esteban Ocon look like the only two people who would drive for RB and not be smashed up by Verstappen. Any thoughts?

    1. If Daniel is smart he will stay becuase there is no place to go. He should swallow his pride and try and figure out what makes Verstappen so fast and learn different driving techniques.

      1. Max is hardly blowing him out of the water. This isn’t an Alonso vs Vandoorne comparison. They have different strengths, and while Max is fast and skilled, Ricciardo is cunning and amazing on the brakes. The stats for the difference in qualy pace, not position, shows how close they remain, not to mention that Max only had one more race ending incident than Daniel but a 32 point deficit, which is more than a race win. Red Bull have stated many times their driving styles are similar, which helps them with car setup and design. They’e both pushing each other.

        1. @selbbin RIC was on average +0,313 off of VER’s pace, whereas Kimi was only +0,276 off of Vettel. Not very many people here call Ferrari’s inner driver battle a tight match, so I don’t know how can you defend Ricciardo with his qualy pace.

    2. @godoff1 I highly doubt Sainz’s opinion matters here. It may depend more on how he gets on against Hulkenberg. Imagine if he is beaten by Nico over the course of a season, then should Red Bull really sign him? They’ll just be getting a driver with whom there are better alternatives. I just have the feeling that Red Bull rate Sainz below both Verstappen and Ricciardo (otherwise, as they have previously proved, they have no qualms about promoting a new driver in place). I can see Red Bull breaking tradition and signing a more experienced driver outside of their driver academy. Who exactly that would be, I’m not so sure. Bottas perhaps?

      1. @mashiat I think Ricciardo would go to Ferrari replacing Kimi. Perhaps Perez or maybe they may poach Ocon. Ocon has proven he is a match for Verstappen earlier.

    3. Thanks for finally having a comment on the sports rather than Social Media, @godoff1. (I hate it when @KeithCollantine puts these non-stories so high up in the round-up)

      Thoughts: you make a good point. But I don’t think Sainz has that option. When the boss calls; the servant will have to show up.

      1. Egonovi, I didn’t feel it was worth talking about. What if the servant says ‘NO’? Sainz Jr might lose the sponsorship but Renault may see something in him worth keeping. If Renault improve enough to be within 2-3 tenths of the top consistently, Sainz and Renault may both feel it would be better to stick together, especially if Hulkenberg doesn’t beat Sainz.

        1. Interesting time indeed for DR. As Horner points out, it starts with them seeing how the 2018 RBR is, relatively. But of course DR will be looking at the other teams too. I think DR is in a ‘tough’ spot in a way. Oh I do think he will have no problem getting a top ride, which is a good spot to be in, but if he stays at RBR he risks being beaten by Max, if he goes to Mercedes (obviously assuming they don’t already have other drivers in mind) then he’s up against LH, and the majority around here seem to think anyone beside SV at Ferrari will be the treated as a number two.

          I just wonder if we’ve just seen the last year for a while of DR outpointing a teammate. He’ll have a good ride on a strong team, so he’ll remain in it with a shout, but…

          Anyway, as with all drivers ahead of all seasons, it will be exciting to see what happens. I know he’s good but I haven’t been able to warm up to him myself, and I would think he’s got some pressure on him this coming season. In a way he ‘can’t’ start 2018 by being dominated in almost all categories by Max again. He must stamp his authority over Max, but I personally doubt he will.

    4. @godoff1 Sainz is only on loan to Renault so I doubt he’d have the choice.

  15. Thank god for Lewis, what else would we talk about during the off-season without him?

    1. Exactly. All the other drivers, with the exception of Ricciardo, are a bit too dull nowadays. No character.

      1. @selbbin You mean they live their own life off social media, how dare they,…

  16. Wow! With each passing year, our society is becoming more retarded, ignorant and mostly, intolerant!

    1. And stuff like Hamilton’s video is only perpetuating that intolerance.

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        27th December 2017, 20:13

        I’d say the backlash is even more intolerant

        1. Intolerance against intolerance is not intolerance at all.
          We need to be intolerant when facing intolerance because otherwise intolerance will keep growing.

  17. Boys don’t wear princess dresses. Doesn’t mean they can’t, but most don’t, most of the time.

    Guess this means Lewis turning up for Australia in a princess dress. Can’t wait…

  18. I’m surprised Hamilton is such a great driver, has such a great right foot, what with how often he puts that foot in his mouth.

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      27th December 2017, 20:14

      @hahostolze He’s just that flexible!

  19. It’s a long way to racing and everybody need something to handle.
    A 4 yr baby like a cartoon star, dress a costume and this means he’s doing a sexual choice to protect? Does he understand what sex is, than? What an idiotic people politics oriented lgbt , I don’t realize how they get such space on this case.

  20. his specialties, his brain farts.

  21. This world gets stranger every day. F1 does nothing to promote diversity. It races in many countries where gay sex is a crime, yet the world champion apologises for saying that ‘boys don’t wear princess dresses’. Transphobia, homophobia and genderism are very serious issues but a harmless banter is not “humiliation”. Pick your battles.

    1. How about fighting all those people defending Hamilton? I don’t think less of Hamilton because of this, but I certainly think less of anyone who fails to see the problem in his video.

    2. +1 Great observation all round.

  22. It’s true, boys don’t wear princess dresses in general. My son will play with Lego and toy soldiers and my daughter will have a lovely doll house to start with. Then we’ll see which direction they choose to go.
    :)

    1. Why even start with the gender stereotypes to start with though?

      1. Nice one, Martin.

      2. Because nature made different genders – different. And what we call stereotypes, are a culmination of gender behaviour over centuries. Allowing the freedom to select gender neutral behaviour does not mean you neuter kids right from childhood.

        1. Girls don’t get to play with lego because of centuries of gender behaviour? Give me a break.

          This is a fairly apt topic, given this is an F1 site and there is still a significant lack of females in F1 and engineering roles in general. Maybe there would be more if parents such as sato113 didn’t instill in their kids the stereotype that boys build things and girls play house.

          1. Actually, plenty of studies have been done with children given a variety of “gendered” toys. When the adult in their charge knows their sex, they tend to play with the “correct” gender toy. When the children are made out to be the other gender, then they tend to play with the “incorrect” toys. The current thinking is that this is because the adult guides the children based on their notions of what toys each gender “should” be playing with, this can be direct, by giving certain toys out and taking them away, or indirect such as praising boys who play with cars but ignoring them when they play with dolls.

            This is consistent across cultures, for example in cultures where horses are considered a male thing, the adults will push the boys towards toy horses.

          2. When you start with “actually” it sounds like you are disagreeing with me but I think we are making the same point. Gender stereotypes such as those discussed are societally imposed, not naturally occurring due to biology.

          3. Yes, sorry, that was a clumsy W opening, I was trying to build on some points made by a few people, yourself included!

      3. Why start the gender stereotype??
        My god, wakeup there is a stereotype for genders for a reason. How many boys playfight, wrestle & try beating each other up as kids? How many girls at the same age do the same thing, it’s very rare!

        As kid nobody taught me to do dangerous things or to do typical boys things. I just did them. Sure some girls might do typical boy things but hormones & biology is inherent sexist & promotes gender stereotypes naturally.

        1. @s2g-unit

          Ok your post is basically completely irrelevant ranting. Well done!

          What on earth does playfighting have to do with whether a girl should get Lego or a dollhouse for Christmas? Absolutely nothing.

          Anyway….

          Girls fight just as much as boys do, difference is girls are heavily discourage from any sort of aggressive behaviour (because it’s not “ladylike”) whereas with boys it is either dismissed (as boys will be boys) or even encouraged. Hooray gender stereotyping!

          hormones & biology is inherent sexist & promotes gender stereotypes naturally

          Please show me the hormone that accounts for girls wearing dresses and boys not. Please show me the biological reason that boys get to play with Lego and girls get dollhouses. I’ll help you out here, it actually has nothing to do with hormones or biology and everything to do with, you guessed it, gender stereotyping!

          there is a stereotype for genders for a reason

          Yes there is a reason, that reason has nothing to do with biology.

          As kid nobody taught me to do dangerous things or to do typical boys things. I just did them

          Really? We live in a society where colours are gendered, blue for boys, pink for girls. Think about that, the wavelength of light as reflected from a surface and being absorbed by our retinas, one of the most fundamental mechanisms of our experience of the universe, has been given a gender trait. And you are saying your childhood was completely uninfluenced by gender stereotypes? I think you are the one that needs to wake up.

  23. “After the summer break it looked a disaster really, we were so far off the next car, over a second off per lap, and it was looking really, really bad.

    “It would have been easy to give up completely and just think about next year for the team but they still kept pushing, in the factory they kept developing and bringing new stuff to the track.

    “The last three or four weekends we were actually in the mix again and out-qualified people and out-raced people fair and square.”

    Wake up Marcus Ericsson, what are you on about?
    Last 4 races results:
    P15 – only ahead of Magnussen – had problems during the race
    P17 – Retired
    P13 – ahead of his teammate, Grosjean and Stroll, the last two had problems during the race
    P17 – only ahead of Stroll, that basically took the race as a test session

    Unless by “we” he is talking about his teammate, but even if that is the case, he only out-raced the Rookies STRs

  24. The W08 was so tricky to understand, they only managed to win 12/20 races with it.

    “Some of the issues we’ve had have been with us for years and we are only just realising we need to really do something.”

    So they did understood it, but did nothing about?

    1. and yes I came to a F1 blog to talk about F1, sue me!

    2. Michael Brown (@)
      27th December 2017, 20:19

      Some of the issues we’ve had have been with us for years and we are only just realising we need to really do something.

      Because Ferrari were actually competitive at the beginning of the season? 🤔

    3. In the hands of Bottas, it only won 3 races – exactly because it was a difficult car to drive. Please take a look at how Bottas (and Lewis) struggled in some races. Point is, if you has 2 drivers like Bottas in the car, that is all the races Mercedes wold have worn this year

  25. Personally, I’m more upset that Lewis isn’t working on dropping the hottest mixtape of 2018. Can’t wait for that [disaster] to hit iTunes.

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      27th December 2017, 20:18

      20-place grid penalty.

  26. 1. Don’t know why Ricciardo is stalling Red Bull – he has nowhere else to go other than Ferrari and that’s not hugely likely.

    2. Hamilton shouldn’t have made a comment like that so he apologised as he should. People, including his nephew can dress up like a princess whenever they want. Yes people get offended by things, but if you can avoid it why don’t you? Being nice and respectful of others costs you nothing.

    3. Stroll’s 2017 performance answered nothing. He lucked into a podium and was consistently behind an about to retire Massa. If Bottas was on average quicker than Massa, and Massa was on average quicker than Stroll… well you get the picture. Sure he has potential but he better start improving faster than he is. Perhaps he’ll do a reverse-Kvyat and just get faster?

    4. The 2017 Mercedes being ‘the most difficult car’ Hamilton’s driven? Like really? It wins over half the races of the season but it was ‘difficult’. Is this like Toto going on about the ‘pack has caught us’ and then dominantly winning? If he honestly thinks that and isn’t just self-congratulating he really should give the Haas or a Sauber a go.

    As for the season – yeah it got considerably less interesting as it went on as the fight for the championship fizzled out. Dominance is fascinating from a technical perspective and I’m sure it looks great in the history books but it’s uninspiring to watch. F1 could do with more than three teams winning races and more than two drivers fighting for the championship.

    1. Ferrari not likely? Leclerc is still unproven in f1, ferrari doesn’t often take young drivers in their main team, ricciardo is quite a possibility if leclerc doesn’t do a verstappen, he also would like to race for ferrari himself.

      Well, ofc, there is still the problem that ferrari usually doesn’t take 2 number 1 drivers and imo ricciardo is fairly similar to vettel performance wise atm.

      However imo, it’s more a risk what verstappen did, already renewing with red bull, who doesn’t seem to prove, mostly because they don’t make the engine themselves, to be consistently able to challenge ferrari and mercedes, look at the start of this year.

      Yes, points don’t count much in stroll’s case, his lack of pace compared to massa is insane, who also was quite a bit behind bottas, but ofc he can still improve, I wouldn’t say he’s on f1 on merit right now, maybe after next season.

      Yes, mercedes is still really strong, don’t think any current driver could’ve won the title in vettel’s place.

      1. Lewis would have even Max and Riciardo may have

  27. Thanks @keithcollantine for COTD. Last year’s Abu Dhabi GP was also a train, but just the possibility of Rosberg making a mistake and thus losing the championship got us hooked till the last lap. This year no one cared!!!

  28. This is ridiculous! I think some people are going too far in pushing LGBT agenda.

    1. How does Mag turning down Daytona push a lgbt agenda?

  29. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    27th December 2017, 22:20

    Re. the Hamilton thing, as people aren’t perfect the best we can hope is that they own up to their mistakes, apologise and learn from them. That’s what Lewis has done, there’s no need to keep bleating on about it.

  30. Lewis is an exceptional driver of that there is no doubt but what he is absolutely brilliant at is putting his foot into things.
    He is an ace at that and I am an Hamilton fan so for me that side of him is immensely disappointing.
    He has scarred his nephew for life because he went public with it and that video will not disappear because its on the net.
    His school friends will have a field day with that incident when he gets to school.

    Hopefully when his nephew grows up and looks at pics of Lewis’ dress sense he’ll have the last laugh or maybe sue him!

    Lewis may live to regret this. Hanging linen in public is never a good idea.

  31. Hamilton’s statements were in bad taste and should be scrutinized. However, he does show good character to acknowledge he was wrong in his statements and has apologized a number of times since.

    It is interesting the social gender stereotypes that exist everywhere. My son has always loved pink. Pink used to be a masculine color, but not so much now in most cultures. He struggled with this for a long time with peers. He is fortunate enough to have a good group of friends now and this season he got a new reason to watch F1 with his old man with Force India’s BWT livery.

    These types of statements do cause harm. Maybe with Hamilton’s platform it can bring a little positivity and reflection to those that would say the same thing without pause.

    1. Just a quick FYI, when “pink” was considered a masculine colour, we didn’t have a word for orange. We called it pink or red, hence “Robin red breast” for the bird with a vivid orange marking on its chest. The Masculine colour would properly be called orange these days.

    2. @gunner22

      Hamilton is perfectly entitled to have the view that boys shouldn’t wear girls clothes. the bad taste comes from intolerant people like yourself who want to shutdown people who have these thoughts.

      it was actually sad seeing Lewis forced into an appology by a mob who ironically claim they are open minded.

      1. If your thoughts involve telling other people what they can and cannot do, unless you are a police officer and the thing they want to do is a criminal offence, then you should be shut down. Intolerance of intolerance is not intolerance, anyone who thinks a child should wear “gender appropriate” clothes is entitled to that opinion. They are entitled to say what they think about it. They are not entitled to shut down what people think of their opinion, and they are not entitled to enforce their opinion. Otherwise it works both ways and the people criticising the person with the opinion could enforce their beliefs – and no, criticism, no matter how harsh is not enforcement, enforcement would be spreading misinformation such as “dressing like a girl makes you gay” or legislation “boys cannot wear skirts to school”

  32. Hamilton did nothing wrong whatsoever, so are you saying he shouldn’t be allowed to express his views on any opinion he feels fit? Talk about double standards. Boys should be taught that princess dresses are for girls just like they should be taught to not walk in front of a car.

    1. Is wearing a princess dress really that dangerous? I know they have lots of ruffles, but life changing injury worthy?

      1. Especially if they’re made of nylon! Ouch! Lewis ‘mistake’ was putting it on social media. What he does, says & thinks in private is his own business, but as soon as you post it on that giant stuff-up called *book,gram, twit* whatever, the rest of the world fall upon it (as they have done here) and tear it to pieces dissecting every nuance. It’s what they do because there’s nothing else going on in their own lives they have to continually comment and moralise on everyone’s elses. I like Lewis Hamilton precisely because he makes small errors of judgement, as we all do. That makes him a human being in my eyes not a deluded SJW pontificating on the lives of others. Having said that, he might well do so but I’ll never know as I’m not signed up to any of that on-line social garbage because I prefer my own identity and my own space. Even so, I still manage to help others and raise thousands for local charities without so much as a single twit.

  33. Could anyone imagine what would happen if a young boy dressed as a princess became an F1 driver? Ofcourse we can, his name IS Lewis Hamilton. Sorry Lewis, but you walked into that one!

    1. If Hamilton wants to dress like a Princess who are we to judge……

  34. I’m the biggest Hamilton fan but for the life of me i can’t get around his need for social media.

    Just be a racing driver ffs, you can go party with Kanye when you retire. He’s definitely getting stranger and stranger at race meetings with his phone constantly in his face. Best thing about it most of his own shot content will be checked by 10 people before he airs it to the public.

    1. Social media is this generations alcoholism. Not even joking, I genuinely believe this!

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