Lewis Hamilton has risked incurring the wrath of Formula One's owners, Liberty Media, after snubbing a major promotional event for the British Grand Prix at Trafalgar Square on Wednesday night in favour of a two-day holiday.
The timing by Hamilton, who posted pictures of himself partying on the Greek island of Mykonos, was especially awkward on the day that Silverstone officials triggered a break clause to end their hosting of the race in 2019. John Grant, chairman of the British Racing Drivers' Club, hit out at a "crazy situation" that has allowed the country's best-attended sporting event to become commercially unviable.
Liberty are understood to have told Hamilton that his presence for this evening's parade of F1 cars through the capital, expected to be watched by a quarter of a million people, was required. But even as a triple world champion and one of only two British drivers on the grid, he appears to have placed his own needs above those of the sport.
Liberty have told Silverstone that there is no room for renegotiating their contract, where the promoter's fee rises by five per cent year and on which the circuit made a £4.8 million loss last year. Grant lamented the impasse that has thrown the British Grand Prix's future into fresh danger.
"It's a crazy situation, where the top end of the sport is being subsidised by the grassroots, rather than the other way around," Grant told The Telegraph. "It's not one we can carry on supporting. So, we had to protect our position, even though it's slightly awkward for everybody. The event generates lots of revenue - it's a question of managing our costs, which we do extremely well. The reason the costs are higher than the revenue is the promoter's fee, simple as that."
