LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE DRIVER!
Lewis laments lack of fans
LEWIS HAMILTON has admitted he is struggling to cope with the loneliness of Formula One’s coronavirus season. The world champion, who takes a 37-point lead over Max Verstappen into tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix, can walk through the paddock without the usual glut of photographers and guests following him.
And whereas the old calendar allowed him to roam widely between races, the rat-a-tat nature of the reconfigured season has curtailed his movements. He is in lockdown at race weekends, with only dog Roscoe and physio Angela for company inside his giant motorhome.
‘The journey of an F1 driver can feel lonely,’ said the Brit, who is chasing Michael Schumacher’s record seven titles. ‘It’s magnified with having to limit the people in your bubble. But I am fortunate to be able to go to work, and so many people don’t have that.
‘ Luckily, work gets me by. These are the good days but the ones in between are a bit trickier. When you don’t see any fans you feel removed from contact. With travelling you are usually at events and interacting with many people. But I’ve interacted with fewer people this year than I have my entire life, which makes it difficult.’
He added: ‘ I am trying to remind myself that in today’s world there is something tangible to fight for, and it is not this championship — it is equality. I want to be a part of that solution. There is such a long way to go and it weighs heavily on my spirit.’
Not so heavily, it turns out, that he was willing to boycott the race here in Spa. The notion was put to him on Thursday as various sporting events in the US were postponed following player-led protests against the shooting of African-American Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. Hamilton, who only a few weeks ago was upbraiding his fellow drivers for silent complicity in racism, said boycotting the grand prix would have little effect because he is in Belgium and the events unfolded in America.
The championship leader’s inclusion means he will start qualifying today as favourite to finish the weekend with a fifth win in seven races (having only been third in practice yesterday owing to the team trying new parts).
The season is scheduled to be 17 rounds long, finishing in Abu Dhabi on December 13.
The closing Middle East trilogy opens with back-to-back events in Bahrain, on November 29 and December 6.
The second of those races will take place on the shorter, outer circuit. At 2.2-miles long, it is the smallest track of the year, though fractionally longer than Monaco’s street circuit. Several of the nine turns can be taken flat-out and simulations indicate qualifying times will be as little as 55 seconds. That would eclipse the fastest lap time ever set on race weekend, by Niki Lauda at Dijon in 1974, of 58.79sec.
Tomorrow’s race takes place a year after Formula Two driver Anthoine Hubert was killed here. There will be a minute’s silence before the grand prix in his honour. Then they will roar off to Eau Rouge, that spiteful corner where he died.
Yesterday, Claire Williams declined to reveal whose money lies behind American investment firm Dorilton’s £136million buyout of the Williams team her father, Sir Frank, built. The buyers are only known as BCE Ltd, which gave rise to speculation that a certain Bernard C Ecclestone was involved. Not so, and the identity of the individual or family remains a mystery.