Lewis Hamilton Picture Credit: Twitter
Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has finally caved to the demands of the FIA as he was seen without his nose stud ahead of his home Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit. The 37-year-old was enthralled in a standoff with the FIA in May when a new ruling didn’t allow drivers to wear jewellery in the cockpit for safety reasons.
The British driver was given an exemption until Silverstone to remove his various jewellery and piercings. Addressing the issue, Lewis Hamilton said, "It's kind of crazy to think that with everything that's going on in the world that is the focus of people," the sport's most successful driver of all time had told reporters on Thursday.
I can't remove at least two of them: Hamilton
When the ruling was announced, Lewis Hamilton was one of the voices against this scrutineering and considered the decision as unnecessary. The Brit also went on to talk about how he wouldn’t mind missing the entire race as Mercedes have a replacement driver. "If they stop me (racing) then so be it. We've got a spare driver," he said. "There's lots to do in the city anyway so I'll be good either way."
While addressing the jewellery Lewis Hamilton said, “I can't remove at least two of them. One I can't really explain where it is. But what I can say is its platinum that I have, so it's non-magnetic, it's never been a safety issue in the past. I've had in 16 years so many MRI scans and not had to take out the platinum.”
I feel particularly in a way targeted to Lewis Hamilton: Vettel
Several other drivers came out to support Lewis Hamilton in his stance. Lewis’ long-time rival Sebastian Vettel also called this issue unneeded. He said, “I think it is a bit unnecessary to blow this topic up. Probably at this stage, it's more of a personal thing and I feel particularly in a way targeted to Lewis Hamilton.”
“We spoke about underpants as well. Is that the most exciting thing we can talk about? To some degree, it's personal freedom. We are old enough to make our choices outside the car, we should be old enough to make choices also inside the car.”
