Triple Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton did himself no favours by missing out on the Formula 1 Live event in London on Wednesday, while all nineteen of his rivals on the grid were there engaging with enthusiastic crowds the British driver was partying with his mates.
For a driver who claims to love the fans and always calling out to the crowds he purports to respect so much, it was bad form..
Add to that the fact that the event was on the eve of his home race at Silverstone, happening in London of all places - my mind boggles at his insensitivity, hypocrisy and immaturity.
This from the guy who crowd surfs at Silverstone, salutes the adulation of his fans, shows concern for the impact others' actions have on young F1 fans - but a snub like this to the heart of his loyal supporters is a form of image hara-kiri that will no doubt be a talking point ahead of his home race.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that his excuses for not attending the event were flimsy to say the least and insulting to everyone connected with Formula 1. He flipped the bird at the entire racing community, let's face it everything that made him what he is today. Downright bad form no matter if you a Lewis fan or not.
The tweet on his timeline featuring a video of him arriving at a raucous party, when he should have been traveling to London, is out-of-line, insensitive and immature - who is guiding this guy?
The episode suggests to me that behind the facade of loving the fans and Formula 1, Lewis really loves himself above everything else.
Which is fine but don't pretend to be the contrary. All in all, not cool for a dude who tries so hard to be cool.
Zak Brown sums it up nicely:
Lewis told The Guardian: “I think the love that I get when I go to the British Grand Prix is immense. I’ve obviously had a lot of support in the UK."
“Do people know how much I love the UK? Maybe not enough. But hopefully when I’m on the podium and I carry the flag, hopefully people will start to see my patriotism. It’s something I’m very proud of and maybe that’s just going to take time.”
PR speak or genuine words? In the light of his London snub he could have fooled me and the thousands of F1 fans (mostly Britons no doubt) who booed out in disdain when his name was mentioned as fellow drivers gathered on stage.
Instead it appears that Lewis was in Mykonos and apart from the London Snub he also failed to turn up to collect his Best Drive award at the 2017 ESPY awards on Wednesday night in Los Angeles,
On another note, we have to applaud Formula 1's new owners for the initiative and every one that was there mingling with fans, truly taking the sport to the fans.. The nineteen drivers present savoured the event and were visibly enthused by the fact that they were taking the sport to the people.
There are so many cool stories that came out of this and the Formula 1 community - teams, drivers, sponsors, media - did a superb job 'taking us there' with videos, photos, quotes etc:
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