Lewis Hamilton has earned praise for his honest assessment of how his season with Mercedes unfolded.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were both present at the FIA Prize Giving ceremony in Baku on Friday to collect their respective trophies, along with second-placed Sergio Perez
During his speech at the FIA Prize Giving gala, Lewis Hamilton demonstrated his class by praising rival Max Verstappen.
After finishing second in the championship, the Brit narrowly defeated Sergio Perez. However, Verstappen, who achieved a record-breaking third Formula 1 title, was far ahead of both of them.
F1 awards were saved until the end of the gala in Baku on Friday as prizes were handed out to the top three drivers. So Hamilton was first up on stage to get the third-placed trophy and gave a respectful nod to his competitors in his speech.
“Good evening everyone, I just want to wish everyone a big, congratulations on this year,” he said. “For everyone, it has been a very, very long season and very much looking forward to the winter break. We’re working very, very hard on making sure we come back strong next year.
“I must say a big congratulations to Red Bull, Verstappen and Checo – they’ve done an incredible job this year. Max Verstappen was faultless. Max and all of his team really raised the bar and we have a lot of work to close that gap, but I truly do believe that we can close that gap.”
He went on to praise his Mercedes colleagues, adding: “Thank you also to my team, because they never gave up this year. We started off with a sister basically of previous years’ car which was not good and not fun to drive for most of the year. But no-one gave up, everyone continued to show up every day and that was what was most inspiring and so I hope that we come back next year.”
As gracious as Hamilton was to his rivals, he had little positive to say about the FIA despite being at the governing body’s big end-of-season event. Referring to the short-lived investigation into Toto and Susie Wolff which dominated the F1 news agenda this week, the seven-time world champion tore into his hosts in the pre-ceremony press conference.
He said: “Disappointing to see the governing body questioning the integrity of one of the most incredible female leaders we’ve had in our sport, without questioning, without any evidence, then just saying sorry at the end, that’s just unacceptable.
“There is a consistent battle to truly further develop variety and incorporation inside the business, however it appears there are sure people inside the initiative of the FIA that each time we make a forward-moving step they’re attempting to pull us back and that needs to change.”
What’s more, he likewise addressed why the function was held in Azerbaijan, adding: “While I truly like Baku – it’s actually a wonderful spot – [there are] inquiries to me of whether the FIA is actually really contemplating supportability in light of the fact that such countless individuals flew over here. The FIA is in Paris and it just would have been simpler to remain there.”
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