
Seven-times F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has slammed F1’s “bulls**t” decision to reprimand Sebastien Vettel for wearing a rainbow-colored T-shirt to shows his support the LGBTQ+ community during pre-race national anthem session.
Vettel support expressed T-shirt read ‘Same Love’, was summoned by the stewards following Hungarian GP race and the German was one of four drivers (Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, and Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll) reprimanded by officials. Lewis calling it ‘bulls**t’ before adding that he will wear the same shirt next time.
In a now-deleted Instagram story, Hamilton showed his support of Vettel and said next time he would join him.
“Super proud of this guy,” Lewis wrote. “There is no rule that says what colour shirt you can wear and supporting the LGBTQ+ community is not reprimandable. This is bulls**t.
“Well done, Seb. I’ll join you next time with the same shirt.”
Hamilton later updated his post, adding: “Love to see this Seb supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Love always wins.”
FIA explain controversial reprimand of Vettel
Explaining the pre-race procedure, FIA race director Michael Masi said: “Earlier this year, following discussions internally with the FIA and F1, we clarified that we wanted to keep giving the drivers the ability to have the moment to show their support for WeRaceAsOne however they chose to.
“But then the national anthem for a particular country should be respected with all drivers wearing their race suits.
“So it was clarified and made very clear that once that moment was displayed and drivers showed their recognition, they would have to remove their shirt or anything else they wore and go to the national anthem in their race team uniform.
“That has been the same for a number of events now and this has been the first event where it has happened since.
“All of those drivers that kept their shirts on – it wasn’t just Sebastian, it was four or five drivers – received a non-driving reprimand for failing to follow the race directors’ instructions.”
Vettel dismisses reprimand, says he ‘would do it again’
“It is a non-driving reprimand,” he added. “You look at all penalties on the basis of what they are and reprimands are the lowest penalty other than a warning which really, is not a penalty.
“A non-driving reprimand, you need to have two driving reprimands and one non-driving to ultimately get to a grid penalty but as an example, three non-driving reprimands doesn’t have that impact.”