Ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was in New Zealand and took a picture of himself while he was riding a motorbike. Now, he must not have known that the folks in New Zealand actually made that illegal and it turns out the local law enforcement took no further actions on the matter.
That won’t stop the effusive Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff, from offering his opinion on the situation just as he does on just about every other topic happening in the world of F1 and beyond.
“In hindsight the thing on the motorbike wasn’t the right thing to do and he knows that perfectly well,”
Now he wasn’t that concerned about it and if you ran the situation through this cultural “outrage” meter that seems to be all the rage lately, you could argue that he endangered his life and the life of others by this terribly selfish act and placed many people in an unsafe situation. I’m not arguing that but every time something like this comes up and is dismissed, there is always a hyper sensitive group that run the entire gambit of possible outcomes and create drama where none exists.
It’s not to marginalize the law or the risk but like Toto, it probably isn’t impacting Lewis:
“He delivers on track. He wins races and he wins championships. His life seems to suit him and make him perform – and that is why, for me, it is absolutely OK,”
Fair enough but I can’t help but think that Lewis probably isn’t too keen to have his team boss even commenting on how he may have been in the wrong. That’s just my hunch.
Hat Tip: Sky Sports F1
As much as Toto has replaced Lauda as rent a quote, I prefer him being vocal on stuff, than just the evil glares that Ricciardo’s boss (Marko) gives him. (If you saw Fp1)
That’s why Mercedes are beating Red Bull these days, they have succession planning in all areas of team management, including ‘rent a quote’.
Haha, very good response :-)
The thing that gets me about this selfie thing is that the police cleared Hamilon of any wrong doing so what is everyone issue. Jackie Stewart is shouting for an apology and everyone is saying Hamilton was wreckless but to be honest if that was the case the police would of prosecuted him.
As the police cleared him he did nothing wrong so he has nothing to apologise for, in fact JS should apologise to Hamilton for slagging him off for doing nothing wrong.
Everyone get over it as no wrong doing happened !!!
Just because someone says a person didn’t break the law doesn’t make it right. There are certain moral and common-sense things you should do though they are not written in any law book.
(For the record, it is illegal in Austin, TX, and in most urban areas within the USA, to talk and ride/drive at the same time. You may not use your cellphone or similar device while driving unless it’s set up to be hands-free.)
Hi Joff, it’s been a bit of a news item here in NZ. The police didn’t clear him, they just ‘decided to take no action’. So on the face of it ‘wrong doing’ happened (you can watch the video clip) but the police decided it was too much grief to prosecute him when he was already out of the country.
Right. It’s not wrong if the cops don’t have enough evidence. Great logic there OJ Simpson…er…Joff.
What do you call it if the laws and rules are not upheld equally for all classes of people? We call it “klassejustitie”, would be translated as “class justice”.
Ah whatever.
In the US, technically the letter of the law applies to everyone regardless. Laws have to apply to everyone or they are not laws. We also have due process under the law and are presumed innocent until proven guilty and the burden of proof is on the prosecution to prove guilt, not to the defense to prove innocence.
Toto is the adult in the room. He should take over from Bernie ASAP.
Having said that I know nothing about his history, apart from his relationship with Williams. Where did he come from. Bio please
There is a difference between “”the law applies to everyone” and “the law is upheld equally for everyone”.
In most cases you can get away with a lot if you’re a white caucasian with a lot of money.