Melbourne (AFP)
Six-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton found it "shocking" on Thursday that the Australian Grand Prix, the first test of the 2020 season, will be held as scheduled in Melbourne, amid a coronavirus epidemic.
"I am very, very surprised that we are here," said the Briton at a press conference.
"It is good that there are car races, but for me it is shocking that we are all sitting in this room here," said the driver of the Mercedes team.
Many sporting events, including motorsports, have been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic, but the Australian GP is scheduled to take place this weekend.
The second round of the world championship, the Bahrain GP on March 22, will take place behind closed doors.
Hamilton notably cited as his concerns the fact of having seen the triple world champion Jackie Stewart, now 80 years old, in the paddock of the race while the elderly are vulnerable to coronavirus.
"I see people going about their business as if everything is normal but it is not," said Hamilton who will try to conquer this year a 7th world title which would make him the equal of the legendary Michael Schumacher.
"Money is king", he added, to the question "Why was the Grand Prix still held when more than a hundred cases of coronavirus, linked to three deaths, were detected in Australia ? ".
"I do not see why I will not state my opinion," said Hamilton, who was somewhat different from his main rivals with these statements.
"It is normal to ask the question" of the holding of the Grand Prix and declared the quadruple German world champion Sebastien Vettel.
"But I'm not the one who has to judge," he added, joking that the F1 drivers "have no passengers in their cars."
His teammate at Ferrari, Monegasque Charles Leclerc, considered that "if the organizers and the Australian government believe that it is possible to do it, then do it".
Ferrari is headquartered in northern Italy, a country under quarantine due to the number of cases of coronavirus reported there.
© 2020 AFP