© Daimler AG
Lewis Hamilton spoke about the current Formula 1 plan to run 2020 races without fans, as a coronavirus precautionary measure.
While it’s still debated when the 2020 season will be able to get underway, the current aim is to go racing in July, but with one caveat – there will be no fans allowed at the tracks. While Lewis Hamilton concedes it will be “better than nothing”, he wasn’t too thrilled when he learned of the fan-less races.
“It gave me a really empty feeling because the fans really make that race,” said Hamilton.
“Around the world, all the races we go to, the more fans there, the more atmosphere you have.
“That’s why you have places like Silverstone, Monza – so it’s going to be very empty, but what’s great is I’m getting messages from people around the world who are struggling during this period because they’re not getting to watch sports.
“It just shows how significant sport is in people’s lives. It brings us all together and it’s so exciting, captivating, so I don’t know how exciting it’s going to be for people watching on TV but it’s going to be better than nothing.
“As I said, for us, it’s going to be like a test day. Probably even worse than a test day in a sense that at a test day there’s not a huge amount of people at Barcelona, but there are still some.
“Here, you’re going to have nobody in the crowd and you’re just going to see empty seats as you’re driving down.
“But racing is racing and, as I’ve said, I don’t think any of us have had time to really truly unleash the potential of our cars, so I’m excited to get back in.
“I really, really do miss it,” concluded the Briton.
You can listen to Hamilton talk about this and a lot more on Mercedes’ YouTube “In Conversation With…” series.
