38 replies to this topic

[Rodaknee]

I can't for the life of me understand why McLaren have chosen to make their signing of 13 year old Ugo Ugochukwu some kind of huge PR event.  Is it necessary to place so much pressure on a kid of his age?  I know other young kart drivers have been signed to top teams, but it was usually done without such a huge fanfare.  Perhaps the American youngster is going to get to the top, but I can't help feeling McLaren should have thought more about the kid than themselves.

 

 

[mclarensmps]

They did the same thing with a certain 7 time world champion currently in F1. 

It's mind boggling how anyone can take a negative view on this. I'm not even a PC individual. 

[Risil]

I thought this was going to be about offering up your child's skin to be signed by a driver in lieu of an autograph.

[Burai]

They did the same thing with a certain 7 time world champion currently in F1. 

It's mind boggling how anyone can take a negative view on this. I'm not even a PC individual. 

 

Nah, the pressure's different now thanks to social media. The scrutiny could be unbearable. The worst thing Lewis had to contend with is talking to Kid Jenson every other Saturday.

[jjcale]

I can't for the life of me understand why McLaren have chosen to make their signing of 13 year old Ugo Ugochukwu some kind of huge PR event....

 

Ima give you the benefit of the doubt that you really are that innocent ... and that the only point of this post is the fact that he is 13 years old.

[FirstnameLastname]

Ugo 1st

I’ll go 2nd

[SophieB]

They did the same thing with a certain 7 time world champion currently in F1. 

It's mind boggling how anyone can take a negative view on this. I'm not even a PC individual. 

I admit ‘what about Lewis’ was my first thought too but people tend to only usually remember when these things work out. The kid who was part of the same programme  as Lewis seemed to really suffer after being dropped and his family spent a massive chunk of what they had trying to make it happen and it just didn’t work out. However, I guess it’s always been the case that for every idealistic kid following their dreams that makes it, there’s loads more who try just as hard and it doesn’t happen. I’m not sure there’s any way back from signing tiny tots now and hoping it pays off.

 

e. ‘What about Lewis’ seems to be most posters first question to most F1 things that happen, now I think about it.

[ensign14]

I bet Helmut has first dibs on Max' sperm.

[Red5ive]

Yeah I cant fathom a reason why they have made a "thing" of this signing either........

[mclarensmps]

Nah, the pressure's different now thanks to social media. The scrutiny could be unbearable. The worst thing Lewis had to contend with is talking to Kid Jenson every other Saturday.

 

There's always been pressure on kids to get to the top in lots of sports. Gymnastics and Tennis are two individual sports that come to mind, where they're started incredibly young. However, football would be a more accurate comparison when it comes to mainstream sports. In fact, I would say in football, there is an endemic and parasitic problem with both the institutions and the parents completely potentially destroying a child before their brain is developed enough to understand what they're being put through. 

With the advent of esports as well, you're going to start seeing younger and younger individuals come into the spotlight.

SophieB, you're right, we tend to always look at the success stories, which definitely skews perspective. Wasn't Billy Monger also in his teens (probably not 13 though, I don't remember off the top of my head), when he was being touted as the next big thing, before his accident?

Anyhow, I'm all for teams supporting young kids, if they have the potential to become a success in the sport. McLaren used to have a pretty decent academy for a few years, which has completely run dry. I see no issues with this, and I hope for all the success for this kid 

[KWSN - DSM]

Lewis is the one who worked out, in principle I am against tying children into adult contracts, or contracts mirroring adult contracts - We touched don it before in another thread, I am of the firm opinion any contract entered intp by parents or legal guardian of a child becomes null and voide the second the child becomes an adult.

 

I do not think the signing of Ugo Ugochukwu should be promoted, I am perfectly fine with McLaren throwing hundreds of thousands of USD after him, just do not making it anything for the public to fodder on.

 

The soccer fans among us may remmeber Freddy Adu.

 

There must be a lot of gokart drivers, thought to be the next great one who never really made it into anything special, Ugo Ugochukwu should not become burdened by the expectations, Hamilton and verstappen none withstanding.

[PayasYouRace]

I bet Helmut has first dibs on Max' sperm.

 

I didn't think he swung that way.

[noikeee]

Yeah he's probably being given a bit more PR focus than usual because he ticks the diversity box, but I don't see anything wrong with that. It's good to show that there's a place for people that aren't from the dominant ethnicity or gender or whatever else there's a potential bias against.

13's a bit young though. Not so much for getting a F1 team deal (karting kids being signed up is nothing new), but for the public exposure in this social media age. It is slightly iffy.

[jjcale]

I see your 13 years old and raise you 11 years old ...

 

http://www.loopcayman.com/content/mercedes-f1-signs-11-year-old-jamaican-karter-junior-programme-0

Mercedes F1 signs 11-year-old Jamaican karter to junior programme

 

I guess Merc didnt bother to promote it since they managed to sign the one white kid in Jamaica ....   

 

 

Edit - can you imagine how crestfallen LH was when Toto told him: Levis! Levis - gess vat? ve've signed a jahmakan kid .... and then LH saw the picture!

Edited by jjcale, 22 March 2021 - 19:48.

[ensign14]

Shame they didn't find a girl.  "We at Mercedes have signed a young lady from a Caribbean country." "Jamaica?" "No, she wanted to join."

[IrvTheSwerve]

They did the same thing with a certain 7 time world champion currently in F1. 

It's mind boggling how anyone can take a negative view on this. I'm not even a PC individual. 

Lewis being with Mclaren as a youngster was nowhere near this...there weren’t any leading stories on F1 news websites or press releases to this scale...

 

Must admit I thought the press release and fuss on the F1 websites about this was a bit strange.

[BobbyRicky]

https://www.autospor...434897/4434897/

[H0R]

Where's the problem? The lad doesn't look a day younger than Lando Norris.

[YoungGun]

How is McLaren supporting this young promising driver any different than a young drivers program? 

[pup]

I can't for the life of me understand why McLaren have chosen to make their signing of 13 year old Ugo Ugochukwu some kind of huge PR event.  Is it necessary to place so much pressure on a kid of his age?  I know other young kart drivers have been signed to top teams, but it was usually done without such a huge fanfare.  Perhaps the American youngster is going to get to the top, but I can't help feeling McLaren should have thought more about the kid than themselves.

A press release is a 'huge PR event'?  They routinely put them out when they sign drivers, just like I'm sure all the other teams do.  Just google " _________ joins McLaren Young Driver program", or check the driver program wikipedia references. McLaren doesn't have a huge driver program, and it's rare to sign someone that young, so that's probably why more outlets are running the release.

 

I think maybe the question is what is it about this particular press release that caught your eye?

[Risil]

I see your 13 years old and raise you 11 years old ...

http://www.loopcayman.com/content/mercedes-f1-signs-11-year-old-jamaican-karter-junior-programme-0
Mercedes F1 signs 11-year-old Jamaican karter to junior programme


I guess Merc didnt bother to promote it since they managed to sign the one white kid in Jamaica ....



Edit - can you imagine how crestfallen LH was when Toto told him: Levis! Levis - gess vat? ve've signed a jahmakan kid .... and then LH saw the picture!

Speaking of racing Jamaicans, I was looking through the stats of Johnny Dumfries's career today and I noticed a guy who did very well in British F3's Class B the year Bute won the whole thing (1984), a very stylish looking Jamaican driver called Carlton Tingling. Does anybody know about him?

[pup]

Lewis being with Mclaren as a youngster was nowhere near this...there weren’t any leading stories on F1 news websites or press releases to this scale...

 

Must admit I thought the press release and fuss on the F1 websites about this was a bit strange.

 

I'm not sure how to measure the "scale" of a press release, but comparing Lando Norris' to Ugochuckwu's, I'd say Lando comes out on top.

 

https://www.mclaren....vealed-3122258/

https://www.mclaren....-ugo-ugochukwu/

 

As far as leading stories goes, it's not a leading story on Autosport - as of right now they don't have a story on it at all.

 

Lewis Hamilton's signing got 36 paragraphs out of Jonathan Noble, working for some strange little outlet called AtlasF1 - http://atlasf1.autos...20/support.html

Edited by pup, 22 March 2021 - 21:59.

[jcbc3]

Speaking of racing Jamaicans, I was looking through the stats of Johnny Dumfries's career today and I noticed a guy who did very well in British F3's Class B the year Bute won the whole thing (1984), a very stylish looking Jamaican driver called Carlton Tingling. Does anybody know about him?

 

Googling throws this up. https://www.shutters...lliams-2718769a

 

But I can't find anything else on the story.

[pup]

How is McLaren supporting this young promising driver any different than a young drivers program? 

None, but it is a little interesting that it comes just 3 months after this story - https://f1i.com/news...philosophy.html

 

So there must be something about this kid that got McLaren to change their mind.

[LucaP]

Speaking of racing Jamaicans, I was looking through the stats of Johnny Dumfries's career today and I noticed a guy who did very well in British F3's Class B the year Bute won the whole thing (1984), a very stylish looking Jamaican driver called Carlton Tingling. Does anybody know about him?

There was a thread at Nostalgia Forum about one year ago

[Myrvold]

None, but it is a little interesting that it comes just 3 months after this story - https://f1i.com/news...philosophy.html

 

So there must be something about this kid that got McLaren to change their mind.

 

Maybe that it is at least 5 years until they can even put him in a F1 seat, regardless of his results. Ricciardo is 36 in 5 years, and I think he's been open about not going to stay "forever" in F1. Actually it fits quite nicely with what was said some months ago, about being targeted, signing few etc.

[Myrvold]

Ima give you the benefit of the doubt that you really are that innocent ... and that the only point of this post is the fact that he is 13 years old.

 

Must be a hard life to see things everywhere...

[mclarensmps]

Lewis being with Mclaren as a youngster was nowhere near this...there weren’t any leading stories on F1 news websites or press releases to this scale...

 

Must admit I thought the press release and fuss on the F1 websites about this was a bit strange.

Nowhere near what? What is this?

They put an article up on their site, and a link to it on their social media.

When they signed Lewis (at 13), they put an article up on the site, and had an article in their fan subscription magazine. 

What other websites and media outlets do with this news is not in McLaren's control. Print magazines were a thing when when McLaren signed Lewis, and there were articles about it.

[PayasYouRace]

I see your 13 years old and raise you 11 years old ...

 

http://www.loopcayman.com/content/mercedes-f1-signs-11-year-old-jamaican-karter-junior-programme-0

Mercedes F1 signs 11-year-old Jamaican karter to junior programme

 

I guess Merc didnt bother to promote it since they managed to sign the one white kid in Jamaica ....   

 

 

Edit - can you imagine how crestfallen LH was when Toto told him: Levis! Levis - gess vat? ve've signed a jahmakan kid .... and then LH saw the picture!

I’d imagine Lewis would be thrilled that another minority would be getting a chance. 

[babbel]

Lewis Hamilton's signing got 36 paragraphs out of Jonathan Noble, working for some strange little outlet called AtlasF1 - http://atlasf1.autos...20/support.html

TIL..

I seriously did not know Noble wrote something for AtlasF1 as far back as 1999...

[pacificquay]

He didn’t. He was working for McLaren at the time.

 

If you scroll to the bottom of the article you’ll see it’s a McLaren press release which the site simply lazily published in full.

 

 

As for this thread, it’s a touch depressing that so many forumers let themselves down whenever there’s a racial aspect to anything.

[boomn]

There was another 11 yr old karter who signed with an F1 driver academy a while back and has since become an F1 driver with a pole position and led half a grand prix... Lance Stroll

[pitlanepalpatine]

I feel sorry for the kid, regardless he's gonna end up getting a lot of abuse in this day and age.

[masa90]

I think it is sad that kids of so young age are put into pedestal and have to lose their normal childhood. I dont believe it is healthy.

 

But, seems like on most of the major sports these days the stars keep getting younger and younger.

 

All the best for the young athlete in question.

[TecnoRacing]

He's seems a really intense character - hope he's having fun.

interesting background...and just curious - anyone know why Ugo's surname is different than his mother and father's?

[jjcale]

I feel sorry for the kid, regardless he's gonna end up getting a lot of abuse in this day and age.

 

No need to be sorry for him - Mother was a famous model - Dad is from an Italian family at the top end of textiles business for generations and founded his own  high fashion chain which he sold .... and together they are worth at least tens of millions - maybe more. .... nobody is pressuring him, he's got lots of options in life.   

 

Mum and dad are somewhat mates with LH.

 

He's not going to get any abuse. He is from a traditional F1 background .... and he seems to be very good at his karting. Not LH or MV good when they were karting - but probably LN good.*

 

 

 

* this is from my usual 5 minutes of research on Google... 

[JimmyClark]

 

 

Lewis Hamilton's signing got 36 paragraphs out of Jonathan Noble, working for some strange little outlet called AtlasF1 - http://atlasf1.autos...20/support.html

 

Interesting. 

 

I wonder what happened to Wesley Graves? 

[pup]

anyone know why Ugo's surname is different than his mother and father's?

 

I've seen his full name listed as Ugo Ugochukwu Orlandi.  

[pup]

Interesting. 

 

I wonder what happened to Wesley Graves? 

 

Disappointment, bitterness, etc.  

 

https://www.theguard...eatures.comment