Lewis Hamilton cut an isolated figure as he fidgeted on his tinsel pulpit after being pipped to pole position for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
The fact he was beaten into second place by his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas was greeted with a degree of delight from garage to garage. Many F1 insiders here have heard enough of the six-time world’s champion’s self-righteous preaching.
The final insult, as many saw it, came in his post-qualifying assertion that he considered his fellow drivers to be racists unless they proved that they aren’t.
‘Silence is complicity,’ he reported of his own comments to a meeting of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association on Friday night, at which the issue of how to demonstrate against the killing of George Floyd and the waves it caused, on Formula One’s return after a seven-month lull.
The Daily Mail reports,
He talks of ending division, while in fact he breeds it.
Yes, all the grid’s cast will wear ‘End Racism’ T-shirts as they line up for the Austrian national anthem but a number of the drivers are privately unhappy to be dragooned into taking a knee at Hamilton’s heavy-handed insistence.
Several were talking on Saturday night to think over whether they fall in line, conflicted between a desire to protest at racism on one hand and freedom of self-expression on the other. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz said: ‘Not everyone has decided what to do. You will see tomorrow.’
The chief accusation against Hamilton is one of hypocrisy on several fronts. He is the eco-warrior who, on Thursday, chided anyone wearing a disposable mask on the basis they end up on the ocean floor.
But how did this environmentalist arrive in Austria? By a needless private charter flight from Monaco. He could have travelled with his team from the United Kingdom — where he was based after testing at Silverstone on June 10 — but no, he flew to his tax haven home for a few days and then made his own way here.
The journey formed part of his extravagant carbon footprint through lockdown that took him from Australia, where the intended opening race was called off in mid-March, to Bali, to America, then to Britain and Monaco. Fine, it is easier to get long distances by plane than by foot.
The chief accusation against Hamilton is one of hypocrisy on several fronts. He is the eco-warrior who, on Thursday, chided anyone wearing a disposable mask on the basis they end up on the ocean floor.
But how did this environmentalist arrive in Austria? By a needless private charter flight from Monaco. He could have travelled with his team from the United Kingdom — where he was based after testing at Silverstone on June 10 — but no, he flew to his tax haven home for a few days and then made his own way here.
The journey formed part of his extravagant carbon footprint through lockdown that took him from Australia, where the intended opening race was called off in mid-March, to Bali, to America, then to Britain and Monaco. Fine, it is easier to get long distances by plane than by foot.
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