In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says the controversial conclusion to last year’s season, in which he lost a potentially record-breaking eighth world championship on the final lap, left him “sitting there just in disbelief”.
In brief
Hamilton ‘knew something wasn’t right’ in Abu Dhabi finale
Hamilton described his feelings after losing the championship after FIA Formula 1 race director Michael Masi broke the rules to arrange a final-lap restart.
“You see things start to unfold,” he told Vanity Fair, “and my worst fears came alive. I was like, there’s no way they’re going to cheat me out of this. There’s no way. That won’t happen. Surely not.”
Asked whether he felt cheated, Hamilton said: “I knew what had happened. I knew what decisions had been made and why. Yes, I knew that something wasn’t right.”
Piastri should have shown more loyalty – Szafnauer
Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has criticised the team’s reserve driver Oscar Piastri for showing a lack of “loyalty” by declaring he will not drive for them next year as Fernando Alonso’s replacement.
“There should be some loyalty to the fact that we have invested literally millions and millions of euros to prepare him,” he told El Confidencial.
Szafnauer said he has had phone calls from 14 other drivers who are interested in Piastri’s seat, but is adamant they have a valid contract with Piastri.
“Alonso is going to Aston Martin,” said Szafnauer. “We had a contract with Piastri and we have to understand where he takes us legally. We believe, and that is why we issued the statement, that we have a binding contract. Let’s spend some time studying where this takes us.”
Ganassi spoke to Palou for first time in weeks after podium
Chip Ganassi and Alex Palou broke weeks of mutual silence after Sunday’s IndyCar race in Nashville as they celebrated third place in the race. The team and driver are involved in legal action over Palou’s attempt to join rivals McLaren SP last year.
“We didn’t really have a chat one-to-one since then,” said Palou. “I mean, it’s good, right? We just finished on the podium. It was a good day. It was a good day for the team overall as well with Scott [Dixon] finishing P1.”
Flooding hits Seoul ahead of Formula E finale
Formula E is due to hold its season finale double-header in Seoul this weekend, but parts of the South Korean capital have been hit by floods due to extremely heavy…
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