Corona Pandemic Is Not Over Yet, Lewis Hamilton Highlights British GP Decision To Allow Spectators

JAKARTA - Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday that Formula 1 was too early to make the decision to allow 140,000 spectators to flock to the Silverstone Circuit for next month's British Grand Prix.

F1 on the same day announced that thousands of fans would be allowed to attend the British Grand Prix to be held July 16-18 following the easing of restrictions related to COVID-19. The decision will see the largest number of spectators at a British sporting event since the pandemic triggered a nationwide lockdown in March last year.

The pre-pandemic race at Silverstone was held in 2019 and was attended by a total of 351,000 spectators over three days and a record 141,000 fans thronged the stands on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in 2020 Silverstone will host two races without spectators. "I'm kind of divided," Hamilton said as quoted by Reuters ahead of the Styria Grand Prix in Austria.

"I'm really happy to see the audience in England, because they are the best crowd of the year. "Obviously, I saw the news so I heard about the (COVID-19) cases going up sharply in the UK and seeing that I was worried for people. "It feels a little premature to me," Hamilton said of the decision to allow spectators at Silverstone.

Even though the audience must have been vaccinated or had a photonegative test result for the coronavirus, Hamilton said that didn't change his opinion. "I'd rather make the mistake of being careful and slow in sight than step on the gas straight away and use the British fans as a test," said Lewis Hamilton as quoted by Antara.

Silverstone, home to most F1 teams, followed in the footsteps of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the British Open golf tournament, and the Euro 2020 semi-finals and final at Wembley as the subject of the UK government's Event Research Program (ERP).

Silverstone circuit managing director Stuart Pringle told Reuters the British GP would be over nine hours before all restrictions were lifted and the ERP program was data-driven. "The reason why we are the sport with the most spectators is because we are the last in the Event Research Program which has been running for several months," said Pringle.

He said the audience would not be penalized if the data indicated it was not safe.

Meanwhile another British driver Lando Norris welcomed the news. "I'm very happy," said Norris. "We lost so much last year. It's nice to see little by little there is an audience for this season here and there. "Seeing them come back and feel more normal again is what I've been waiting for."

The British GP will be the first race of the season to use the new format with qualifying on Friday and then a sprint race on Saturday to determine starting positions on Sunday. Points will also be awarded to the rider who finishes in the top three on Saturday.

While Lewis Hamilton has questioned whether spectators will be allowed to watch the British Grand Prix, Austrian authorities have also allowed 15,000 fans to attend this weekend's Styrian Grand Prix, with more to come at the next race a week later at the same circuit.