First Published via HUB Magazine when I was Editor-in-Chief.
Date marked: 17th November 2023.
Recent FIA punishments for Lewis Hamilton beg the question of is Sir Lewis Hamilton is being personally targeted. From last year’s nose earring fine to crossing the track €50,000 fine to a disqualification.
Many have suggested that Sir Lewis Hamilton is held to a higher standard as a role model. In comparison to team sports such as football and rugby, Formula One presents itself as a rather personal sport. One might say the cars are an extension of the drivers themselves. While Sir Lewis Hamilton has a team behind him, he is the one who captures the blame in countless news articles.
In most recent events, Sir Lewis Hamilton finished in second place, merely two point two seconds behind Max Verstappen in Austin and he was later disqualified. The FIA investigated only four out of the seventeen winning qualifying cars, of which half failed the floor regulations. Max Verstappen (Redbull) and Lando Norris (Mclaren) were cleared but Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) was disqualified as well. Half the cars that were checked failed regulations it is confusing to why the FIA would not check more cars. Furthermore, the Mercedes and Ferrari teammates’ cars were not checked, did the FIA just not bother checking? Simply from Mercedes and Ferrari, this was an accident of excessively worn-out floors.
The regulations state that the floor plank holes should only be worn from one mm to nine mm across the weekend. However, given the nature of a sprint race, they had not been able to measure planks since Friday Afternoon. Thus, it is not surprising that they failed the regulations, yet this does not reflect upon Sir Lewis Hamilton himself.
In comparison, in the Qatar Sprint race, only one car was checked, further in the Qatar GP only three cars were checked and furthermore, none were checked after the Japanese GP. It all seems somewhat bizarre.
Sir Lewis Hamilton continuously speaks up against the FIA (read the article on the FIA banning political statements at Formula 1 and the effect this could have had on Sir Lewis Hamilton).
Sir Lewis Hamilton has recently spoken against the FIA’s increasing of fines. The FIA decided after twelve years to increase the maximum fine amount. Not merely by double nor by treble but by quadrupling the amount. This means they can now fine drivers up to one million euros (£871k). Considering Sir Lewis Hamilton is always on the receiving end of these fines it’s no wonder he spoke against this:
“There’s a lot of money in this whole industry and there’s a lot more that we need to do in terms of creating better accessibility, better diversity, more opportunities for people who don’t or wouldn’t normally have a chance to get into a sport like this – so many causes around the world. That’s the only way they’ll get that million from me.”
Sir Lewis Hamilton paths the way for change in Formula One and it’s a shame he is constantly met with resistance.
Bibliography-
Formula One. ‘Hamilton and Leclerc disqualified from United States Grand Prix for technical breach’. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-hamilton-and-leclerc-disqualified-from-united-states-grand-prix-for.10nvuyvEPfMgoeWxWOhw0a.html .Published by Formula One, 23rd October 2023.
Jogia, Saajan. ‘F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Makes Strong Statement After Huge FIA Rule Change’. https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/f1-news-lewis-hamilton-makes-strong-statement-after-huge-fia-rule-change-sj4 . Published by Fannation, 20th October 2023.
Kew, Matthew. ‘The can of worms opened by Hamilton and Leclerc’s F1 US GP disqualifications’. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/the-can-of-worms-opened-by-hamilton-and-leclercs-f1-us-gp-disqualifications/10536696/ . Published by Auto Sport, 24th October 2023.
Maher, Thomas. ‘FIA make Lewis Hamilton stance clear after personal attack accusations’. https://www.planetf1.com/news/fia-stance-accusations-lewis-hamilton-attack . Published by Planet F1, 18th October 2023.
Skye Collacott Williamson 