Oct.18 (GMM) The FIA is tipped to put Lewis Hamilton back in the spotlight ahead of this weekend’s US grand prix.
At Suzuka recently, the reigning world champion triggered a controversy and then lashed out at his treatment by the media, after ‘Snapchatting’ his way through the official FIA press conference on the Thursday.
The Briton, lagging 33 points behind teammate Nico Rosberg now with four races to go, then refused to take questions in a post-qualifying press conference organised by Mercedes for the written media.
Team chairman Niki Lauda said after the controversial weekend: “It will not get out of hand.
“We will talk to him so that he can politely proceed with the media, especially when we convene our press conferences,” the F1 legend added.
Now, British newspaper The Sun claims the FIA could schedule Hamilton to appear once again in the Thursday press conference this week in Austin.
That is despite the fact that the press conference is routinely attended only by six drivers, making back-to-back appearances for a single driver rare.
But the Sun said it “understands F1 bosses are keen for (Hamilton) to face the music for a second time”.
Although sections of the media think Hamilton is in ‘meltdown’, other pundits doubt the triple world champion will give up on 2016, even though Rosberg can now finish second at every race and still emerge as world champion.
Hamilton said: “It’s just about hitting every race weekend as hard as I can, going all out for every win and seeing what happens from there. I’ll be holding nothing back out there.”