Sir Lewis Hamiton has been awarded his knighthood for services to motorsport, becoming the first to receive the honour while still actively competing in the sport.
Hamilton, 36, is the fourth Formula 1 driver to earn the accolade following Sir Jack Brabham in 1978, Sir Stirling Moss in 2000 and Sir Jackie Stewart in 2001.
Hamilton was previously awarded an MBE in 2008 after winning his first world title. The Mercedes-AMG driver received his latest honour from Prince Charles at Windsor Castle, having narrowly missed out on a record eighth world title last weekend.
It was a record-smashing year for Hamilton, as he topped Michael Schumacher’s number of grand prix wins and matched the former Ferrari man’s seven world titles.
As of the end of the 2021 F1 season, Hamilton currently stands at 103 wins to Schumacher’s 91, with a 35.76% win-rate.
Hamilton was denied an eighth world title after he was overtaken by Max Verstappen on the final lap in a controversial finish to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Mercedes were however awarded a record eighth consecutive constructors championship title in a row.
Hamilton started his F1 career in 2007, signing for McLaren. He achieved a podium finish in his first race and narrowly missed out on the driver’s championship title to Kimi Räikkönen by a single point.
He won his first title a year later in Brazil, having broken records for the most consecutive podium finishes from his debut (nine), the joint-most wins in his debut season (four) and the most points in his debut season (109).
Hamilton signed for Mercedes in 2013 and has since picked up six world titles.
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Many people who say that Hamilton does not deserve knighthood do it out of racism, jealousy or both. What was the reason of Masi's decision in Saudi Arabia, one can only guess.
Anyone know the Song from Disney/Pixar Movie called Frozen?, yeah?, well, it's time to drop the moans and indignity, it's done dusted, time to move on,dragging it on in the hope there's a legal case mounted for what is only Car racing isn't something that should fester in your mind, anyway,back to the article, I seem to remember he turned down a Knighthood a while back, and his Crusade?, if you don't agree with it, move on, he can't change the World on his own just like all the other one one band campaigners.
I'm a fan of both Max and Lewis. IMO, what happened in the final race is nothing short of grotesque. If it had just been amazing luck that put Max ahead, that would be acceptable - that happens in racing all the time. But that's not what happened. Masi broke the FIA's rules. Period. There wasn't enough time for him to get the lapped cars to unlap themselves and get a full race lap in. Therefore, he could have done one or the other -- he could either have gone green (penultimate lap) leaving the cars in the order they were in, which would have been both fair and legal. Or he could have let the lapped cars unlap themselves, then brought the safety car in after the following lap (as required by the rules), which would have allowed the remainder of the (last) lap to be green. That would also have been legal. What Masi did instead was clearly in contravention of the rules (which the stewards tacitly acknowledged), nevermind gifting Max a position immediately behind Lewis that he didn't earn on track. Oh, and Max passed Lewis under yellow at least once (also acknowledged by the stewards), which requires a penalty. They just ignored that too. I'd have been perfectly happy with either driver winning - legitimately. Instead, this was utterly grotesque. Oh, and how did Lewis react? He congratulated Max. How did Max act on the podium in Saudi Agabia? He walked off. Truly a shameful and unforgivable end to what had been a fantastic season.
Spot on.
That's because he's a spoilt entitled brat.
This season the bias showing towards Max has been shocking. I can only say that they either didn't want Lewis to win again, or Red Bull have too much power in F1 and the FIA did everything to help them get a title. Might even be to thank Honda for pouring billions in without gaining anything - and note how Red Bull haven't thanked Honda even once. They don't care.
Next, why wasn't Max given race bans for nearly killing Lewis when he deliberately rammed him in Monza? Grosjean, as a good example, got it for his crash where he went over the head of Alonso, and that was caused by him being tapped in the rear. Max should have been banned for at least two races.
Silverston it was Lewis who was given a penalty, yet if you look at what happened it was Max's fault. On entry to the corner Lewis was about to overtake on the outside and would have but Max swerved dangerously at the last moment just as he did to Ricciardo in Baku, forcing Lewis to the inside at speed, which he attempted to brake out of but that wasn't enough for Max. Max cut across the space Lewis needed for the corner, even though he had plenty to the outside. Max caused his own accident with his consistentely dangerous driving.
Brake testing is specifically not allowed. You rarely see it happen because it's dangerous, but any time I have it's an instant black flag. Max should have been disqualified, but wasn't.
And his driving is dirty. He ran Lewis off the track, going off himself, and he is getting away with this because the FIA do nothing. They did nothing to him. Running someone off the track, something Alonso did to Vettel in Monza only to be served his own food back to him a year later, now gets punished as Vettel found out. But Max didn't get any.
The FIA are now complict in his dirty and dangerous driving. The other drivers know this. They're now asking if it's ok to run someone off the track. They're asking if it's now ok to cut corners and exceed track limits. They now say that brake testing is only a ten second penalty, whereas before they'd have been disqualified.
2021 will go down as the most rotten in F1 history. Not just because of the last race, but because the FIA didn't deal with Max and gave him permission to drive dirty, and the only reason he's not a murderer is because of the Halo.