I can see it now…….Ron D sitting in front of a panel if 20 little red buttons with his finger hovering over whoever happens to be in front of his drivers. One little push and, ‘phsst’, a circuit burns out in the ECU of the offending car!

Hell…now you’ve got me getting all suspicious.

the last single championship win, with no win the following season, was back in 1987

Wow, that’s a great statistic — I’d never thought of that before. Although it applies a little better to the Drivers Championship than the Constructors. I guess 1999 was different because Michael Schumacher’s legs broke and McLaren didn’t win the Constructors Championship. Nor did Benetton win the Constructors’ Championship two years in a row.

So your idea that McLaren could snatch it next year is a big possibility. They also have an advantage because all of the cars are using McLaren’s ECU next year.

Nice thread DrV. I, as many, are getting somewhat hacked off with the column inch count given over to reporting old news about Hamilton’s move.

I would only make a couple of minor points:

First, a quick read-up on Swiss taxation regs might be useful [Motor racing is illegal in Switzerland, so an F1 driver can declare himself unemployed. Ka-ching!]

Not quite as simple as that….Swiss tax laws, applied to those with resident status, are based on world-wide income, not income earned in country. There are a couple of exceptions; real estate outside of Switzerland is, apparently, exempt and income from enterprises too. I suppose LH could create a company into which his income is paid and then draw a salary (as many self-employed do). Perhaps that would count as an enterprise and save a few quid.

The main savings are associated with the lower tax rates, rather than paying no tax at all.

Secondly, i’m not sure about the parallels between Hamilton’s declaration of loyalty to McLaren and Buttons statement about Williams. Hamilton is contracted to McLaren and shows no signs of wanting to leave, Button had to leave Williams to make way for Montoya and, later, when Williams tried to get him back from BAR, BAR won the contract battle. Whether Button wanted to return to Williams, i’m not sure of.

I think it’s a little early to say whether Button is right about Hamilton’s WDC chances…..i can’t help but see a little spitting of sour grapes, given Button’s lack of luck on that front. There’s certainly a trend for a team to produce consecutive championship winning cars (the last single championship win, with no win the following season, was back in 1987). Yeah, Ferrari won this year, but it was close enough that it could have gone either way. It’s just a case of whether the 2006 and 2007 MP4s were McLaren’s best offering, or if the 2007 car will evolve into an equally good 2008 car.

The thing which irked me a little was that I didn’t fully believe the story about the press being the only reason for the move – now he has said the tax situation added to it as well so as far as I’m concerned it’s over. The press will still follow him though no matter which country he lives in!

If some of these big earners chose to stay here in the UK then the rest of us might not have to pay so much tax!

As for his future chances, they must be rated pretty highly at the moment but a driver’s career is relatively short so a few uncompetitive cars and he wil be starting to sweat a bit.

Remember he doesn’t see himself as a potential world champion – it’s multiple championships he’s after.

He’s the new Senna after all…