Several of Hamilton’s colleagues on the grid were stunned at the recent rule change, as his team-mate George Russell – a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – said that the new maximum fine seemed “obscene”.
“In my first year of Formula One (at Williams), I was on a five-figure salary and actually lost over six figures from paying for my trainer, paying for flights, paying for an assistant,” he revealed.
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, whose team have one of the smallest F1 budgets, reacted alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. “Charles can give his watch but I would disappear, never to be found again,” he joked after Leclerc had his watch stolen last year – valued at £265,000.
