F1: Mercedes and Hamilton to be penalized (2nd Update)

Lewis Hamilton is likely to face a 10-place grid penalty for the first race of the 2022 Formula One season, the Bahrain Grand Prix in March, for failing to attend the FIA’s end-of-year prize-giving ceremony.

However, it is increasingly likely that Hamilton will call it quits on his F1 career in the off-season to avoid the risk of having his new Mercedes teammate, the highly regarded George Russell, beat him in equal machinery and show the world that all of Hamilton’s victories and championship were because he had the best car.

Image is important for an athlete when selling yourself to companies that would endorse you or have you associate your name with their brand.

Right now, Hamilton is regarded as the best ever.  If Russell were to beat him, that would be ruined, everyone would know it was the car and not the driver, and ultimately cost Hamilton a lot of money.

Hamilton might beat Russell, and all would be well, but can Hamilton afford to take that risk with his brand image?

Stay tuned……

Not so fast, the new FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem says that Lewis Hamilton will be penalized if he broke the rules by not attending the FAI Award Events Thursday night in Paris.

“First of all, as a driver I feel emotional but at the end of the day rules are rules so we are going to look into the side where it is… rules are there to be employed,” Ben Sulayem said. “Was he in breach? I have to look into it. I was definitely excited about the election, there were the judges who were there (in Abu Dhabi), the stewards who were handling it, the FIA is taking care of it, but I will definitely look if he was in breach.

“Of course we have to be following our rules, but in the meanwhile it doesn’t stop us from making a champion feel good about the sport. It’s easy to be nice to people — it’s cheap to be nice, and also to motivate people, but definitely, if there is any breach there is no forgiveness in this.

“I always say, rules are not made, humans made them — they are not the bible or any holy book or something, they are made by humans and can be improved and changed by humans. So, rules are there to be improved.

“I know that Lewis is really sad about what happened and one word I would say is he is broken, but we have to look if there was any breach. I cannot just (decide), a few hours now into being president, and just started giving answers without going back to the facts.”

(GMM) Mercedes is lucky to escape penalty for the way the German team aimed fire at the governing FIA following the controversial end to the 2021 title battle.

That is the view of departing FIA president Jean Todt, even though he says the federation will “rise above” calls for Lewis Hamilton to be penalized for missing Thursday’s end-of-season FIA gala in Paris.

As for team boss Toto Wolff, though, the Frenchman seems enraged.

“Are we perfect? No,” Todt said. “That’s why we take another look at our decisions.”

But he insists that claims race director Michael Masi “robbed” Hamilton of his record eighth drivers’ world championship were a step too far.

“The president of the Lyon football club is not allowed at ten games because he spoke badly about a referee,” said Todt.

“Maybe we’ve let too much go in the past. On the one hand, there should be a dialogue between the FIA, drivers, teams and rights holders, but this openness should not be directed against us.”

Wolff, though, is evidently unapologetic, joining Hamilton in his boycott of Thursday’s FIA gala and refusing even to send the constructors’ title-winning car for a photoshoot.

He also said pushing ahead with an appeal against Masi’s decision in Abu Dhabi would have been pointless because “the FIA wouldn’t admit its own mistakes”.

“They would have been both defendant and judge at the same time. It would be a powerless feeling again, just like on Sunday in the last lap.

“But a civil court would have proven us right,” the Austrian insists.

“It will take a long time to digest that, and we’ll probably never quite get over it,” Wolff said.

He clarified, however, that Mercedes’ gripe about Abu Dhabi should not detract from Red Bull and Verstappen’s celebrations.

“We don’t want to waste a bad word about Max, Horner or Marko,” said Wolff. “They gave us an incredible fight and deserve the title.

“We are sorry if this aftermath cast a shadow over Max’s world championship.”