Jul.13 (GMM) Lewis Hamilton will head into his home race at Silverstone amid a cloud of local booing.
At F1’s London demonstration event on Wednesday, the Mercedes driver’s countrymen booed at the mention of his name.
That was because Hamilton was the only active F1 driver missing at the event.
“We invited teams and drivers to join us and had a fantastic response from all the teams and 19 drivers,” the sport’s clearly disgruntled owner Liberty Media declared.
Earlier, Hamilton had said he would miss the event in favour of a holiday.
“As Lewis posted on social media, he is on a short break until Silverstone,” a Mercedes spokesperson said.
Hamilton’s title rival Sebastian Vettel said in London: “I don’t know why he’s not here.”
F1 correspondent for the Daily Mail, Jonathan McEvoy, said: “Why Hamilton would stay away is almost beyond understanding.”
Hamilton’s boss Toto Wolff said in London: “Lewis feels he is in such a tough championship fight that he needed the days off after Austria.”