Lando Norris

[Massive Attack]

Yet another English/British F1 Champion.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/ar ... rk61y2nyjo

Well done, son. 1st of many hopefully.

[Russ of the BML]

Yeah they had money but not the sort of historic money that you associate with F1. They were a bit 'nouveau riche', big 5/6 bedroom house on the Ardleigh Green road so not quite Emerson Park proper but enough that you knew they had dough. The house the dad and brother grew up in would probably be worth between £1.5/2m these days I'd say.

To be fair his dad David grew his insurance company all off his own back and has been really successful in doing so. Yeah he got a bit of seed money from his dad to get going but it has become the sizeable company it is off his hard work and business acumen. His uncle John was a runner on the LIFFE floor back in the day and then went on to day trade off his own book and last time I spoke to him was based out of one of these X-Connect offices in Brentwood/Chelmsford so as a family they have had a good start from the grandad but have done well themselves. They were always into motor sports and not just Karting, you'd always go past the grandad's house and they'd be a touring car style machine on the drive way on a trailer or under a cover that they'd been racing at the weekend so Ollie has just followed in their footsteps.

The Grandad is in prison at the moment as he was the owner/landlord of the King Harold Pub in Harold Wood when that you 5/6 year old boy got electrocuted and died about 10yrs ago. The old man was trying to do it on the cheap from reports and ended up getting banged up for negligence. Ironically my own Grandparents owned the same pub for about 20yrs through the late 60's / 70's and early 80's.

Cheers for that. Interesting to know. Nice to hear that its not 'typical millionaires' kids that get 'bought' through the ranks and Hamilton wasn't a one off. 

[Jim79]

Yeah they had money but not the sort of historic money that you associate with F1. They were a bit 'nouveau riche', big 5/6 bedroom house on the Ardleigh Green road so not quite Emerson Park proper but enough that you knew they had dough. The house the dad and brother grew up in would probably be worth between £1.5/2m these days I'd say.

To be fair his dad David grew his insurance company all off his own back and has been really successful in doing so. Yeah he got a bit of seed money from his dad to get going but it has become the sizeable company it is off his hard work and business acumen. His uncle John was a runner on the LIFFE floor back in the day and then went on to day trade off his own book and last time I spoke to him was based out of one of these X-Connect offices in Brentwood/Chelmsford so as a family they have had a good start from the grandad but have done well themselves. They were always into motor sports and not just Karting, you'd always go past the grandad's house and they'd be a touring car style machine on the drive way on a trailer or under a cover that they'd been racing at the weekend so Ollie has just followed in their footsteps.

The Grandad is in prison at the moment as he was the owner/landlord of the King Harold Pub in Harold Wood when that you 5/6 year old boy got electrocuted and died about 10yrs ago. The old man was trying to do it on the cheap from reports and ended up getting banged up for negligence. Ironically my own Grandparents owned the same pub for about 20yrs through the late 60's / 70's and early 80's.

[El Scorchio]

Yes they are. They all are these days.

'Oliver Bearman comes from a financially successful family; his father, David Bearman, is the wealthy founder and CEO of the global insurance group Aventum Group, contributing significantly to Oliver's F1 journey and wealth'

Everyone's perennial least favourite driver Lewis Hamilton is probably the last or one of the very last drivers who didn't come from a wealthy background.

[fraser]

I've been mates with Ollie Bearman's dad and uncle since I was about 16/17 so to see him make it through to become an F1 driver from his start in karting has been mind-blowing. Hopefully he continues his meteoric rise and can get a move to a better team than Haas in the next few years after he's got a bit more experience.

That's interesting.

Without trying to sound like I am prying, are they well off? You hear that all these F1 drivers come from privileged and well off families as karting is such an expensive sport to get into and maintain. Although, when you see Hamilton's rise it didn't appear that his parents were well off - Just that they committed everything they had to getting him to succeed.

I just wondered what Bearman's path to F1 was?

That's a fair question and I've always thought the same, just not enough of a nosey cսnt to ask like you  

[Russ of the BML]

I've been mates with Ollie Bearman's dad and uncle since I was about 16/17 so to see him make it through to become an F1 driver from his start in karting has been mind-blowing. Hopefully he continues his meteoric rise and can get a move to a better team than Haas in the next few years after he's got a bit more experience.

That's interesting.

Without trying to sound like I am prying, are they well off? You hear that all these F1 drivers come from privileged and well off families as karting is such an expensive sport to get into and maintain. Although, when you see Hamilton's rise it didn't appear that his parents were well off - Just that they committed everything they had to getting him to succeed.

I just wondered what Bearman's path to F1 was?

[joe royal]

Many moons ago (2014?) i was working on a new car launch in Chelsea 

Some road legal F1 type single seater thing.

Came to the end of the event and we was packing up when there was two blokes taking a massive interest in it now the crowds had gone 

You look like Ross Brawn.

I am. 

[El Scorchio]

Would Verstappen have won the Championship if McLaren hadn’t made Piastri pull over to let Norris win a race earlier in the season?

Probably but Verstappen's teammate has always had to pull over for him to maximise his points where applicable or just literally be a blocker for the team and sacrifice their own race- or indeed just try and drive his rivals right off the track, so the amount of points he's historically gained through that is far greater including owing 2021 entirely to Perez being told just to block Hamilton.

On the subject of the utter scum that are Red Bull, I see Helmut Marko is resigning. The house of cards has fallen. I guess Verstappen and his dad have their wish and defacto control the team. Although if they are shit next season he'll be the last rat to jump the ship and leave them to sink into obscurity. 

[Fauxstralian]

Would Verstappen have won the Championship if McLaren hadn’t made Piastri pull over to let Norris win a race earlier in the season?

[,]

Our other local ish F1 driver was Johnny Herbert a Romford/Brentwood lad.

[Jim79]

Yeah he's a local lad having grown up in Ardleigh Green/Emerson Park.

[El Scorchio]

I've been mates with Ollie Bearman's dad and uncle since I was about 16/17 so to see him make it through to become an F1 driver from his start in karting has been mind-blowing. Hopefully he continues his meteoric rise and can get a move to a better team than Haas in the next few years after he's got a bit more experience.

Good luck to him. Seems a good kid and talented as well. Love seeing Brits come through to F1. 

[Jim79]

I've been mates with Ollie Bearman's dad and uncle since I was about 16/17 so to see him make it through to become an F1 driver from his start in karting has been mind-blowing. Hopefully he continues his meteoric rise and can get a move to a better team than Haas in the next few years after he's got a bit more experience.

[Massive Attack]

When Lando was a nipper he was known as a Norris minor.

[Alfs]

Michael Caine never said 'Not a lot of people know that'. Not a lot of people know that.

[Far Cough UKunt]

Michael Caine's real name is not Michael Caine, not a lot of people know that.

[El Scorchio]

Norris's dad isn't a fucking cսnt though.

[Swiss.]

Both Norris and Verstappen have Belgian mothers. Not a lot of people know that. 

[Massive Attack]

My favourite year of all is still the Braun Win. Such a fantastic triumphant underdog story against the odds. Morris still did great though to nick it st the end from a shit shot driver in Verstappen as well as his Team mate Piastri to the Title. 

[El Scorchio]

I find it pleasing that the normally white, illuminated sign outside McLaren's Woking HQ, is changed to orange for 24 hours or so after a win.

I presume they will have taken the opportunity to do this as well yesterday even though he came third in the race? 

Yeah, it's a fun little thing that, isn't it. You'd hope so.

Another fun little fact about the MTC. Back when Ron was in charge, they used to leave any cracked tiles on the floor as is rather than replacing them because Ron, obsessive man that he is, would rather endure a cracked tile than a replacement, as the replacements were always a slightly different hue of the same colour and he couldn't bear it.

Fucking loved Ron. Proper F1 character when it used to be proper and not all the glitzy crap that's come in plus safety cars and red flags thrown out to interfere with races for the most minor easy to rectify thing, and knew a thing or two about winning titles.

[Bungo]

I find it pleasing that the normally white, illuminated sign outside McLaren's Woking HQ, is changed to orange for 24 hours or so after a win.

I presume they will have taken the opportunity to do this as well yesterday even though he came third in the race? 

[El Scorchio]

In no particular order, Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton, Alonso, Verstappen all better drivers on the current grid so it's hardly a shocker or a terrible slight to Norris to say he's not top tier. Place any of those five in that Mclaren with Pastri as the other driver and the championship fight doesn't even get close to the last race. But he's done what he had to do to get the job done while he had the advantage of a great car and eked out just enough points when it wasn't the best car, even if he made a meal of it at times and couldn't cut through the field, and I'm very pleased for him.

[BerlingtonBertie]

World Champion but not top tier? Righto.
Verstappen is the bollocks, different level. - one of life's winners
Hamilton currently couldn't drive an ice cream van.  I reckon Antonio could beat him and stand on the podium in his snowman suit.

[El Scorchio]

Anyway on to Lando. Really pleased for him. Seems like a good bloke even if clearly not a top tier driver. Held his nerve and didn’t bottle it though he Piastri and the team at various points in the season seemed to be doing their best to hand it to those utter scum cunts from Milton Keynes. Detestable team from top to bottom, exemplified by Tsunoda under team orders trying to run Norris off the road and then trying to make Norris the perpetrator. Sums them up to a tee. 

Nice to have a good guy as the champion rather than that cheating dishonourable Dutch cսnt who would ram his own mother or child off the road for an extra point. 

[El Scorchio]

Half Belgium and lives in Monaco. As English as Hamilton

 

 

Hamilton who is also fully English? They all live in Monaco or Switzerland for tax reasons anyway regardless of whether they are British, Dutch, German, Spanish etc. 

[Mad Ferret]

Born in England, schooled in England, lived in England, has an English father, yeah he's English. 

Sounds a bit like our resident wop goose.