Looks like Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have found alternate vocations, thanks to Vodafone VIP. Jenson Button assists Lewis Hamilton in a professional photoshoot. The video shows good camaraderie between the two Brits, McLaren would be happy about that.  Lewis Hamilton was pretty happy with his new job :

· “So I chose to be the photographer. Jenson was happy with me being the photographer. He wanted to be the assistant because he probably thought he could be lazier but it turned out that he had to do everything. My role was having to direct where all the bits and pieces had to be, position the girls and get them to put on the expressions that I liked and then I had to get the shot done in a very short period of time. I did a pretty good job.” He Said

Jenson was quick to get to grips with the outfit selection, as well as the intricacies of lighting, composition and camera setups, while Lewis also tackled his role confidently. “I’ve done several photo shoots”, Lewis commented, “so I kind of see how photographers behave and act. And obviously I’ve seen Austin Powers so that’s where I really took my inspiration from!”

Check out the behind the scenes video and some exclusive photos :

Jenson Button filling in for the model.

The Alleged photographs by Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton set the timer for this one !

Generally fiddling around on the set for the photo shoot !

About Vodafone VIP :

The film is just one element of Vodafone VIP, which gives customers access to the best of British festival, fashion and Formula 1™ events. Whether it’s the 2011 FORMULA 1 SANTANDER BRITISH GRAND PRIX, music festivals or exclusive front row seats at London Fashion Week shows, Vodafone will be supplying customers with the hottest tickets and money can’t buy experiences. All Vodafone customers can register for Vodafone VIP by going online.

FIA is facing flak from all corners on its haphazard rule change policy mid-season. The latest change is the banning of use of engine electronics and exhaust gases for performance gain. FIA has also told teams that alteration of engine configuration is not allowed between qualifying and the race sessions.

The seemingly haphazard and biased decision has drawn flak from the Red Bull team and supporters, however FIA race director Charlie Whiting dismissed that the decision reeked of any bias. Countering claims he said that its not for the FIA to see if 1 team would be more affected than others in a rule change.

    “What we are doing is stopping people breaking the existing rules,” Charlie Whiting said.     

    “It’s not for us to say whether a certain team would be more penalized than others. It just depends how extreme they are going. But I have certainly seen evidence of maps on a number of teams which are extremely extreme.     

    “It’s not confined to one team, I can assure you,”      

    “It’s a bit like the mass damper where its use when it was first introduced by one team was fairly benign when it came to aerodynamics. But the more it got developed, the more extreme the designs were.”     

    “These things escalate to the point where something has to be done.”     

Christian Horner of Redbull was however adamant in his criticism :

“It is slightly confusing with the technical directive that it was not addressed at the end of the year going into next year,” He said.

“Why has it been done midseason?”

Mike Gascoyne of the Lotus team was worried about the costs associated with such a decision :

“We have all spent a lot of money developing something,” Gascoyne said.

“We are always pushing to get an advantage and will obviously implement it if it is within the rules. It is just frustrating it is done in the middle of the season without consultation.”

Ross Brawn of Mercedes however was all for the decision and justified that it was for the good of the sport :

“The protagonists behind raising this issue were threatening to protest the cars and that was the difficulty they had,” Ross Brawn explained.

“If they hadn’t have taken action, then it sounds like some teams were going to protest the situation to get clarity through the stewards and that wouldn’t be very good for Formula One. We want to avoid that at all costs because … it would probably end up in the appeal courts again and that’s no good.”

FIA has been known to pass judgments on various technical issues mid-season. So why are the teams making such a big deal about it this time ? Is it because some teams are seeing their monopoly ending ? Only time will tell if this would rein in the rampaging Red Bulls !

The World Motor Sport council voted to get the Bahrain Grand Prix re-instated in a move that was praised by Bahrain’s prince but met with sharp criticism elsewhere.

The Bahrain Grand Prix now pushes the Inaugural Indian Grand Prix to the end of the season. The Indian Grand Prix will now be held in December andd Bahrain Grand Prix takes the 30th October slot.

The Bahrain Crown prince praised the move :

“Having the race back in Bahrain has, indeed, significantly unified the people of Bahrain in this period,” Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa said

“Their love for their country and caring for its interest has motivated them in supporting efforts to bring the race back to Bahrain this year,” he added.

This is ofcourse in stark contrast to what the rest of the world feels. We had recently reported on the democracy protests in Bahrain, what we didn’t report (as we aren’t a political blog) was how the protests were crushed and citizens detained in the kingdom state. Its no wonder that the decision to reinstate the Bahrain Grand Prix has people up in anger all over the Internet.

Former FIA president Max Mosely was vocal of his criticism and hoped that the decision to reinstate the Bahrain Grand Prix would be reversed. In a piece for the Daily Telegraph, he wrote :

“Surely the line has to be drawn when a sporting event is not mere entertainment in a less-than-perfect country, but is being used by an oppressive regime to camouflage its actions” Max Mosley wrote.

“If a sport accepts this role, it becomes a tool of government. If Formula 1 allows itself to be used in this way in Bahrain, it will share the regime’s guilt as surely as if it went out and helped brutalize unarmed protesters.”

“Having carried out these horrific acts, the Bahrain government wants to clean up its image. That’s where the grand prix comes in. By running the race they hope to show the world the troubles were just a small, temporary difficulty and everything is now back to normal.

“By agreeing to race there, Formula 1 becomes complicit in what has happened. It becomes one of the Bahrain government’s instruments of repression. The decision to hold the race is a mistake which will not be forgotten and, if not reversed, will eventually cost Formula 1 dear.”

Red Bull driver Mark Webber was also critical and till now one of the only f1 drivers who seems to have come out openly against the decision, He wrote on his website :

“In my personal opinion, the sport should have taken a much firmer stance earlier this year rather than constantly delaying its decision in the hope of being able to reschedule it in 2011.

“It would have sent a very clear message about F1′s position on something as fundamental as human rights and how it deals with moral issues.”

“Like it or not, F1 and sport in general isn’t above having a social responsibility and conscience. I hope F1 is able to return to Bahrain eventually but now isn’t the right time.

“As a competitor I do not feel at all comfortable going there to compete in an event when, despite reassurances to the contrary, it seems inevitable that it will cause more tension for the people of that country.

“I don’t understand why my sport wishes to place itself in a position to be a catalyst for that.”

For better or for worse, formula one is motivated by money,  of course we overlook that 30% of the McLaren formula one team is owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain.

However its (commercial interests) working in the other way also, countless petitions have been started to pressurize Red Bull and other consumer dependent companies to pull out of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

FOTA is another key player in this mess, however FOTA’s current president is from the McLaren team who are owned partially by Kingdom of Bahrain, so expectations are low from them.

At this point, it does not seem like we have seen the last of this matter. Its likely to snowball into something huge in the coming days.

Photo : Soman, under CC Attribution/Share Alike 2.5

I am not sure if it was the end of race frustration on Monaco stewards or he figured it was ok to joke about it because he is of african origin, but Lewis Hamilton thinks its funny to joke :

Maybe it’s because I’m black‎

Any respectful person will find these comments extremely tasteless and boorish and unexpected from a formula one race champion. We hope that he apologizes for the fans of the sport. The comments , even if said in jest are not appropriate.

It was a double whammy for Lewis Hamilton during today’s Monaco Grand Prix, who got a drive through penalty for an incident with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and later was slapped with another 20 seconds of penalty for an incident with Pastor Maldonado.

“Out of six races I’ve been to the stewards five times. It’s a joke. It’s an absolute … joke,” Lewis Hamilton said.

“You know, you can’t overtake here and very, very rarely do you ever get an opportunity. I was quite a lot quicker than Massa. I went up the inside and the guy turned so early and just, turned into me. And I tried to go over the kerb to avoid him and we’re stuck together, and so, I mean, it was just…

And of course I get the penalty, which is usual.  He held me up in qualifying and I got the penalty. He turned into me and I got the penalty. And then I went up the inside of Maldonado, and you can see on the screen he turned in a good car length too early to stop me from overtaking him and crashed into me. I mean, it’s just ridiculous. These drivers are absolutely frickin’ ridiculous. It’s stupid.”

When prodded about why he received so many penalties, he jokingly replied :”

“Maybe it’s because I’m black. That’s what Ali G says”

He is said to have apologized to the stewards later, a good thing IMO. Just needs to apologize to the millions of fans he has hurt.

Team Lotus (the formula one team) won the the right to keep using the name Team Lotus in formula one partially winning the suit against Group Lotus which had licensed the name to Team Lotus in the London High Court.

However the courts found Team Lotus to be in breach of licensing agreements with Group Lotus and ordered them to pay damages. Group Lotus meanwhile didn’t look to be in any mood to acquiescently accept the judgement. They are likely to appeal.

The judgment was a bit weird as the judge gave Group Lotus the right to use te name Lotus in formula one. So at first glance it seems like formula one could theoretically one day have teams by the name of ‘Team Lotus’ and ‘Lotus’. This is one of Group Lotus’s main points for appealing the decision. A statement from Group Lotus read :

“Team Lotus has the right to continue to race in Formula 1 under the name Team Lotus but the effect of the Judgment is that only Group Lotus can use the name “Lotus” on its own in F1.

“Group Lotus is concerned that this aspect of the Judgment will cause confusion in the eyes of spectators and the wider public. Accordingly, Group Lotus is seeking leave to appeal so that the right to use the Lotus brand in Formula 1 is clarified once and for all in the interests of the sport and the fans. Group Lotus and its shareholder Proton Holding Bhd are confident of success on appeal.”

A judgement summary on Group Lotus’s website read :

Note:This is a summary form the Group Lotus website, hence language is not neutral

• Group Lotus has the right to use the name “Lotus” on its own within Formula 1

• Group Lotus entitled to race in the historic black and gold livery

• 1Malaysia Racing Team (1MRT) ruled to be in breach of licence agreement, Group Lotus awarded damages

• Team Lotus Ventures Limited trademarks revoked for non-use

• Group Lotus trade marks unaffected

• Group Lotus has the right to use the Lotus marque on cars for road use.

Meanwhile Team Lotus seemed happy with the judgement they got and are looking forward to their relationship with Caterham cars. A statement on their site gave more perspective :

Team Lotus is very happy that the court case concerning the rights to the Team Lotus name has today come to a positive conclusion and that the team can now focus its full attention on its long-term challenge for honours on and off track. The decision confirms that Team Lotus is the true owner of the full Team Lotus name and the iconic roundel, establishing in law that the Anglo-Malaysian team is the rightful heir to Team Lotus and all associated goodwill.

Team Principal Tony Fernandes gave his comments on behalf of his fellow shareholders Kamarudin Meranun, SM Nasarudin and the 250 strong workforce based in Malaysia and Hingham, UK:

“We are all pleased that it has been clarified that we are the rightful owners of Team Lotus. We have always been confident that the factual evidence we presented would lead to this decision and today’s judgment confirms that belief. We are of course disappointed about the decision that Group Lotus was entitled to end the our licence agreement in 2010. We entered into that contract on the basis that we were beginning a long-term partnership with Group Lotus but unfortunately they then used technical breaches of the merchandising pre-notification process to bring the licence and our partnership to an end. However, my fellow shareholders and I are firm believers that when one door closes another door opens. In the early days of our agreement we realised its termination was inevitable and as events have unfolded the end of the licence has proved positive for us, with many new avenues being opened up as a result.

“We wanted to develop a long-term relationship with Group Lotus and help them sell more cars around the world but that door closed and now we are delighted that we can turn our attention to ensuring success for Caterham Cars on the road and Team Lotus on track. These are two very exciting brands and their future development, bringing these two iconic brands together under the Caterham Team Lotus umbrella, will see us introduce new Caterham cars and a range of new Team Lotus brands into the global marketplace. Now our main aim is to build on the solid foundations that has made Caterham Cars the model for how to run a profitable contemporary car company and add more history to the incredible story of Team Lotus over the coming months and years and with the people, spirit, passion and determination we have in both businesses we know that marks the next stage in our incredible story.”

Photo : Team Lotus Media Images