Nicholas Latifi, Williams, Yas Marina

Latifi has to “work on my neck a bit more” ahead of debut

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In the round-up: Nicholas Latifi says his training goal is to build up his neck muscles for his Formula 1 debut.

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What they say

Latifi was asked how he’ll prepare for his first full season of Formula 1 during the off-season:

To a certain extent it’ll be very similar to what I’ve been doing all my life because I’ve still been racing in competitive championships. For sure the training will change a little bit.

After [testing] I think I’ve definitely got to work on my neck a little bit more. Largely it’ll be the same.

I think there’ll be a lot more preparation going on at the factory ahead of my first season because there’s so many more things in Formula 1, procedures and things like that that you really need to be on top of and you want to not have any question marks in your head going into the first race of the season. So I think I’m going to spend much more time at the factory than I would

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

@Blazzz says some of the criticism Lewis Hamilton receives is hypocritical:

I for one have never understood the flack Hamilton gets in this country for his tax arrangements. Among the chief critics are the Daily Telegraph, who incidentally are owned by billionaires with questionable tax arrangements. Yet, obviously, the Telegraph will never write up a piece on its owners despite claiming to be patriotic.

The Queen’s empire was also implicated in those tax leaks for god’s sake.

Then comes previous world champions and drivers before Hamilton like Button and Coulthard-they never received the same vitriol.
@Blazzz

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On this day in F1

  • 55 years ago today the new F1 season opened at South Africa’s East London circuit on New Year’s Day. Jim Clark dominated, winning from pole position, leading every lap and setting fastest lap.

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14 comments on “Latifi has to “work on my neck a bit more” ahead of debut”

  1. I completely agree with the COTD, a lot of the criticism Hamilton comes in for is just completely illogical. There is little doubt he is held to a completely different standard to other drivers, I know not why?

    One rarely hears any moaning about Jimmy Clark living in Paris and Bermuda, or Jackie Stewart in Switzerland, or nearly all of the current bunch living in Monaco, so what, exactly, is the problem?

    Happy New Year everyone!

    1. He’s a successful black man making use of a system that’s been around for generations that was not meant for him to use and benefit from. But I’m sure people will say that’s not the case.

      One the things that was ignored about those leaked papers was, he technically did not avoid paying the tax on his jet, in fact he paid but was issued a rebate due to how the purchasing agreement was setup & declaring that it was to be used partly for personal [i believe 40%] and the remaining for business. Under those rules, he’s entitled to a rebate.

    2. @paulguitar I wouldn’t use the wording ‘nearly all’ of the current bunch as only five others besides him reside in Monaco, so a total of six out of the 20 who’ll compete in F1 at the beginning of the next season. The rest live in Switzerland, England, Italy, and possibly Spain and France as well.

      1. @paulguitar But I thoroughly agree with the COTD nevertheless.

      2. One of those six is a native to Monaco, so he doesn’t count as a tax evader.

        1. I wouldn’t accuse the others as tax evaders either, @aapje

          For all we know they could be climate crusaders and want to live in a place where they can walk to work ;)

      3. @jerejj, that said, Switzerland is considered another tax haven, so being domiciled there serves the same function as being domiciled in Monaco. There are a few other locations that are sometimes considered tax havens – I believe that the UAE can also serve that purpose, with a few drivers being domiciled in Dubai for that purpose (Magnussen is one such figure).

        If you look at the list, there are a number of drivers who are officially domiciled in tax havens – Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen, Vettel, Ricciardo, Kvyat, Perez, Raikkonen, Magnussen and Leclerc are the ones for whom it is reasonably certain that they are domiciled in tax havens, and possibly Grosjean can also be added to that list (some suggest Grosjean is domiciled in France, but some suggest he’s domiciled in Switzerland).

        To be fair, in the case of two of those drivers, they can at least justify that position as they were born in countries considered to be tax havens – Leclerc being Monegasque, whilst Grosjean was born in Switzerland and is officially a Swiss-French dual national.

        @coldfly, I think that the decision of Clark and Stewart to move to tax havens was still fairly unpopular at the time – that said, in the case of Stewart, that was probably overlooked at the time given that there was rather more bile being poured upon him by those who hated him for his safety campaign (particularly figures like Jenkinson, who was especially vicious in his campaign against Stewart).

    3. One rarely hears any moaning about Jimmy Clark living in Paris and Bermuda, or Jackie Stewart in Switzerland

      Maybe more to do with all frustrated people having access to social media and comment sections like this, rather than complaining to an empty barstool in the local pub.

      Happy New Year.

    4. @paulguitar, re Clark and Stewart, In their day income tax was much higher than today, up to 97.5%, I think the public felt more sympathetic towards people who risked their lives in order to earn a living.

      1. Good points @hohum

  2. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
    1st January 2020, 9:57

    IndyCar’s days of drivers running wide at Circuit of The Americas’ Turn 19 without fear of repercussion are over.

    Figured this would happen this year. Trying to look less pernickety than F1 made Indy look a bit silly that weekend.

    1. It was completely absurd, good to see indycar correct their foolishness.

  3. The series that won’t adapt to the energy transition of the automotive industry can die. If we don’t pay attention we can become obsolete a few years down the road.

    The last decade for ice/hybrid racing indeed. I can understand more about F1 not wanting to overhaul engine regulations. It’s a losing battle.

    1. Lewis should win all the last ten F1 races. He would be adopted by the Royal Queen after.

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