# For Queen and country! Congrats to Lewis Hamilton!



## V8Beast (Oct 26, 2015)

What a weekend. The weather was beyond atrocious, but it was a small price to pay to witness history in the making. Gotta get some rest now, but I will post up the rest of the images from this weekend soon. What a privilege it was to capture the moment. Congrats to three-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, already one of the all-time greats.


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## V8Beast (Oct 26, 2015)

Seb's a true class act!


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## AdamF (Oct 26, 2015)

The only time I heard that expression For Queen and Country was in the Jethro Tull song from the War Child album from many years ago:


JETHRO TULL LYRICS
"Queen And Country"

The wind is on the river and the tide has turned too late,
so we're sailing for another shore where some other ladies wait.
To throw us silken whispers: catch us by the anchor chains ---
But we all laugh so politely and we sail on just the same.
For Queen and Country in the long dying day,
And it's been this way for five long years,
since we signed our souls away.
We bring back gold and ivory; rings of diamonds; strings of pearls ---
make presents to the government
so they can have their social whirl
With Queen and Country in the long dying day.
And it's been this way for five long years
since we signed our souls away.
They build schools and they build factories
With the spoils of battles won.
And we remain their pretty sailor boys ---
hold our heads up to the gun
Of Queen and Country in the long dying day.
And it's been this way for five long years
since we signed our souls away.
To Queen and Country in the long dying day.
And it's been this way for five long years
since we signed our souls away.


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## Valvebounce (Oct 26, 2015)

Hi V8Beast. 
Great action shots, it would appear that Lewis was somewhat pleased, a very airbourne display, congrats on getting to the position for the shots, no mean feat unless you were press! 

Cheers, Graham. 



V8Beast said:


> What a weekend. The weather was beyond atrocious, but it was a small price to pay to witness history in the making. Gotta get some rest now, but I will post up the rest of the images from this weekend soon. What a privilege it was to capture the moment. Congrats to three-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, already one of the all-time greats.


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## TheJock (Oct 26, 2015)

Outstanding images mate as always, you certainly got yourself into a great position for the best shots! It was a thrilling race from start to finish, I sat up till 1am watching it all including the after race shenanigans, Nico wasn’t impressed but it was all Hamilton’s moment for sure, and also the best performance from team McLaren with Alonso just missing out on a single point with only 2 corners to go!! Only 1 month now until I get to the Abu Dhabi race, can't wait!!!


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## brad-man (Oct 26, 2015)

AdamF said:


> The only time I heard that expression For Queen and Country was in the Jethro Tull song from the War Child album from many years ago:
> 
> 
> JETHRO TULL LYRICS
> ...



You're skating on thin ice with this post...


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## Dave685 (Oct 26, 2015)

I'm sorry 'For Queen & Country' - BS!!! This is a man who loves his country so much that he lives in Switzerland to avoid paying UK taxes.

I'm British (born & bred) and enjoy Formula 1 but as far as I'm concerned Hamilton may as well be Swiss!


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## Maximilian (Oct 26, 2015)

HI V8beast! 

Great pictures.



V8Beast said:


> Seb's a true class act!


I am not sure if he'd acted that way if Lewis had done to him what he did in the first corner to Nico 
(remember those Seb vs. Alonso battles in Monza  let alone Mark   )



Dave685 said:


> I'm sorry 'For Queen & Country' - BS!!! This is a man who loves his country so much that he lives in Switzerland to avoid paying UK taxes.
> 
> I'm British (born & bred) and enjoy Formula 1 but as far as I'm concerned Hamilton may as well be Swiss!


+1 
It's all about personal fame and money, no matter which driver you chose.


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## Click (Oct 26, 2015)

Great shots, Sir. Well done.


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## V8Beast (Oct 26, 2015)

romanr74 said:


> While I like the shots and share the cheer... the banding on the rolex background is quite bad....



Yes it is. There's only so much cropping these files can handle  I contemplated renting a 600mm lens for this event, but in retrospect, there's a good chance the rain would have done some damage. 

A rich friend of mine set me up with some main grandstand seats. The 70-300 was just barely long enough to get the podium in frame. Nevertheless, I originally planned on sitting in the mud with all the poor people, so I'm more than pleased to come away with these images. Sure beats watching the ceremony on a trackside monitor with the same view as anyone on the other side of the planet ;D Telling yourself "yeah I was there for that" at some point in the future with nothing to show for it but a faded ticket stub isn't quite the same as reliving the experience with images that you captured. In that regard, the banding is irrelevant


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## TheJock (Oct 27, 2015)

V8Beast said:


> romanr74 said:
> 
> 
> > While I like the shots and share the cheer... the banding on the rolex background is quite bad....
> ...


Well put mate, I totally agree!!
And on that subject, I wish I had an iPhone all those years ago, because there were many (many!  ) occasions when I was a little (*cough*) under the weather and would have benefited from having even cameraphone snaps, such as the time I saw Nirvana at a student union in Glasgow, and the time I saw Metallica with Cliff Burton on the Master of Puppets tour, a few snaps of me and him outside the Edinburgh Playhouse would have been sweet!

I really don’t understand why people always feel the need to moan about someone’s choice of address, you could bet your bottom dollar if every one of these people became sports superstars, or just wealthy they’d be off to sunny shores in a jiffy! 
So what if Lewis doesn’t pay taxes in the UK, does that mean he’s no longer British? Of course not, it’s nonsense and quite frankly it just sounds like the green eyed monster speaking!

Anyhoo, I love your images mate and I'm thrilled that you experienced the championship win, I dream of seeing it for myself one day, but to a McLaren driver ;D


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## V8Beast (Oct 28, 2015)

Stewart K said:


> I really don’t understand why people always feel the need to moan about someone’s choice of address, you could bet your bottom dollar if every one of these people became sports superstars, or just wealthy they’d be off to sunny shores in a jiffy!
> So what if Lewis doesn’t pay taxes in the UK, does that mean he’s no longer British? Of course not, it’s nonsense and quite frankly it just sounds like the green eyed monster speaking!
> 
> Anyhoo, I love your images mate and I'm thrilled that you experienced the championship win, I dream of seeing it for myself one day, but to a McLaren driver ;D



I can't blame anyone for wanting to keep their money. Weren't some Germans upset that Schumacher chose to live in Switzerland for the same reasons? I've never had the opportunity to visit, but it seems like a spectacular place to live, being surrounded by the Alps and all. What a great place to shoot landscapes, too ;D

As for the championship celebration, although I'm not a Hamilton fan or a Mercedes fan, I am first and foremost a Formula One fan. Out of respect and admiration for the sport and its history, witnessing the crowning of a World Champion is something I'll never forget. I remember wanting to be at Indianapolis so badly in 2000, but as a poor university student, I didn't have the means for it at the time. Schumacher ended up clinching his first championship for Ferrari at that race, which made me regret staying home even more. I didn't think I'd ever have to opportunity to witness a championship-clinching race in person, let alone capture the race-winning moment on camera, so I feel very fortunate at how things transpired last weekend. Fortunately, the images didn't totally suck either ;D Or maybe they did 

On a side note, regardless of where he chooses to live, Lewis is already one of the greatest drivers in F1 history. Through the decades, 144 drivers have represented Britain and they have won 16 drivers titles among them. At 30 years of age, Hamilton is already the most successful driver in Britain's long and decorated F1 history. That's no small feat. Britain should be proud 

In contrast, realistically there will probably never be another American World Champion, and I have serious doubts as to whether Haas F1 will ever be competitive. If I were British, I wouldn't take my country's illustrious F1 heritage for granted, even if its most successful driver lives somewhere else


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## GuyF (Oct 28, 2015)

Stewart K said:


> ...the time I saw Metallica with Cliff Burton on the Master of Puppets tour, a few snaps of me and him outside the Edinburgh Playhouse would have been sweet!



Dude! I was there - still have the t-shirt, too. Hard to believe they only managed to partly fill the stalls. How times change.

Anyway, back to the topic in hand. Hamilton might be a 3-time champ but he reverts to a monosyllabic spoiled brat when things don't go his way. How many times have we seen him give one-word answers to questions after a poor qualifying or technical hitch?

As for those saying if we were rich too, we'd be tax exiles. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd says he remains resident in England because he feels his nationality can't be bought (or words to that effect). Always knew he was a decent chap.

By the way, terrific shots by V8.

Now watch Hamilton act as rear-gunner for Rosberg in the final 3 races so Vettel doesn't get second in the championship......


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## Maximilian (Oct 29, 2015)

V8Beast said:


> ...
> In contrast, realistically there will probably never be another American World Champion, and I have serious doubts as to whether Haas F1 will ever be competitive. If I were British, I wouldn't take my country's illustrious F1 heritage for granted, even if its most successful driver lives somewhere else


Never say "never". I can remember people saying Schumacher's records will last as long as Fangio's. 
And now we already have two guys (Hamilton, Vettel) with enough years and potential left to break them...

As for Haas F1 I am quite optimistic. Why? 
- They have racing knowledge and they have money
- They have a plan, they have partners and they say they will take their time (3 to 5 years as Gene Haas says).
An approach so well planned I cannot remember. 

Even RedBull stepped in taking over Steward/Jaguar not really knowing what they were doing (okay, I am a little bit harsh) but taking their time - 5 years - to built it up to a dominator for 4 years.
And who ever thought of a soft drink company beeing F1 world champion...?


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## V8Beast (Oct 29, 2015)

Maximilian said:


> Never say "never". I can remember people saying Schumacher's records will last as long as Fangio's.
> And now we already have two guys (Hamilton, Vettel) with enough years and potential left to break them...



Let's hope so. Records are meant to be broken 



> As for Haas F1 I am quite optimistic. Why?
> - They have racing knowledge and they have money
> - They have a plan, they have partners and they say they will take their time (3 to 5 years as Gene Haas says).
> An approach so well planned I cannot remember.



Red Bull is an incredible story, but they hired a secret weapon named Adrian Newey  No such luck at Haas. IMHO, the early success of Haas hinges on their relationship with Ferrari. How much technology and support is Ferrari willing to sell to Haas? That's the million-dollar question. 

The way I see it, Ferrari has come a long way in the past year, but they're still quite a bit behind Mercedes. When the works Ferrari team is that far off the pace, how competitive can the junior team (Haas) really be? 

On the other hand, Haas has a history of leveraging it's partnerships into success. The Haas NASCAR team was a joke until it partnered with Hendrick Motorsports for its engines and chassis. Now they're one of the top teams, and won the championship last season.

That said, spending $15 million per season (per car) in NASCAR is a far cry from the $400-plus million spent by the top teams in F1. American companies are typically uninterested in sponsoring anything related to F1. I hope Haas has a great sales team 

I admire Gene Haas' ambition, but I hope his expectations are realistic. When he said he was "going to beat the Europeans at their own game" during the Haas F1 press conference, I'm sure the F1 world appreciated his typical American arrogance  

Also, IMHO, the team needs to be based in the U.K. I'm not quite understanding how this split-headquarters strategy on two different continents is going to work.


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## TheJock (Nov 4, 2015)

I don't know if HAAS will be at the end of season testing at Abu Dhabi, our recovery team always get first dibs of paid driving within the recovery team for the closed end of season tests, so I'll ask the guys if they notice anything! Could be a nice indication of what's to come from them if they're present, and I can't image why they would not be invited as it's testing towards the following years championship!


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## Maximilian (Nov 4, 2015)

Stewart K said:


> I don't know if HAAS will be at the end of season testing at Abu Dhabi, ...


AFAIK Haas F1 will have their car ready for the winter tests, that means in Feb. 
I don't know if a team is allowed to participate at the end of season tests if they didn't take part of the season.
Stupid F1 (over-) regulations :


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## TheJock (Nov 4, 2015)

They're testing the new Ultrasoft, which will have purple coloured writing.
This is not a continuation of the ended season but a test of the new compound for the next season, so I can't imagine why HAAS wouldn't have received an invitation to take part!!


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## Maximilian (Nov 4, 2015)

Stewart K said:


> They're testing the new Ultrasoft, which will have purple coloured writing.
> This is not a continuation of the ended season but a test of the new compound for the next season, so I can't imagine why HAAS wouldn't have received an invitation to take part!!


I've just read an article that for those test *no new parts* are allowed and that the cars may not be reconfigured during the testing. 
It's just an article and no official FOM document but I read it as only cars and parts from 2015 are allowed. 
So Haas seems to be out.

Furthermore the teams are asked only to nominate official permanent or substitute drivers. 
So no young drivers test.

The test is declared as a test *for pirelli *not for the teams. 
And participation is voluntary.

Source (German):
http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news/2015/11/pirellis-neuer-ultrasoft-wird-lila-15110406.html


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## Hector1970 (Nov 4, 2015)

He's a great driver in an even better car.
Great shots of him.
Lewis needs to learn to be a more gracious winner if he is to be remembered as a great.
He's still young enough to learn


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## privatebydesign (Nov 4, 2015)

Hector1970 said:


> He's a great driver in an even better car.
> Great shots of him.
> Lewis needs to learn to be a more gracious winner if he is to be remembered as a great.
> He's still young enough to learn



Why? Schumacher never was, indeed his (and his teams) constant cheating and deliberate crashing into others, and getting away with it, was the main reason I gave up on F1 many years ago.


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## Maximilian (Nov 4, 2015)

privatebydesign said:


> Why? Schumacher never was, indeed his (and his teams) constant cheating and deliberate crashing into others, and getting away with it, was the main reason I gave up on F1 many years ago.


Any difference to the years ... erm ... decades before?

There was always cheating, crashing, intriguing, mortifying and the biggest egos in F1. 
No matter if you were looking in the cockpits, the pit lane or the organizations.
Schumacher was one of them, Ickx, Prost, Senna and Alonso as well. Same to Todt, Ecclestone and Ballestre, just to name a few.
Where to start and where to end?


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## privatebydesign (Nov 4, 2015)

Maximilian said:


> privatebydesign said:
> 
> 
> > Why? Schumacher never was, indeed his (and his teams) constant cheating and deliberate crashing into others, and getting away with it, was the main reason I gave up on F1 many years ago.
> ...



Exactly, that was why my interest moved to Superbikes, I was lucky to catch the Fogarty/Ducati era, when men were men and racing was racing, and powerslides ruled the day, but off the track those same combatants were the nicest of people and genuine friends to each other.

The late '60's and '70's were the true hay day of F1, when the drivers could be seen to be getting the best out of cars that actually moved on a track, where skilled drivers could actually take an alternative line, and when entire seasons were not measured by two or three individual overtaking moves, that could happen in a lap! Where a race wasn't the difference between artificial external forces like pit stops or pace cars thrown into the mix to help advertising dollars with the governing bodies ability to manipulate the results to 'best serve F1'. I was lucky to be a kid back then in the '70's watching it on a B&W TV on the BBC with Murray Walker, often the far off races were shown live at some ungodly hour but I was always allowed to watch it.

Sure we all think 'our era' was the best, but it has been pretty much universally agreed that money messes up everything (sports, politics, countries, religion etc), and the deluge of money pouring into F1 since the late '80's signaled an inevitable decline in the focus on driving.


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## MaxFoto (Nov 4, 2015)

Congrats to the Germans who gave the Brit, his country, and raggedy old queen the title.


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## Maximilian (Nov 4, 2015)

MaxFoto said:


> Congrats to the Germans who gave the Brit, his country, and raggedy old queen the title.


Be careful. 
I as a German say that the money is coming from Germany but the team is so much international that you can judge the nationality only by what is written in the team license. 
The team is Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix *Ltd* and the Factory is in *Brackley, GB*.


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## rfdesigner (Nov 4, 2015)

MaxFoto said:


> Congrats to the Germans who gave the Brit, his country, and raggedy old queen the title.



that's right, the germans are so creative they have to develop the engines and cars in blighty.


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## Hector1970 (Nov 4, 2015)

privatebydesign said:


> Hector1970 said:
> 
> 
> > He's a great driver in an even better car.
> ...



Maybe if he was gracious you might go back and follow the sport.
Certainly motor bike racing appears to be more competitive and the competitors respect each other more.
I'd recommend the film Senna if you wanted to reminisce about the pre-Schumacher era.


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## GuyF (Nov 4, 2015)

MaxFoto said:


> Congrats to the Germans who gave the Brit, his country, and raggedy old queen the title.



Let's also not forget that the Queen is German (from the House of Hanover). The royal family took the surname "Windsor" to sound more acceptable to the British. Mind you, go back far enough and we're all African, so who cares?

http://englishmonarchs.co.uk/hanover_11.htm


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