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Lewis Hamilton has been spotted in New York City, far removed from the world of F1 and all that it encompasses. The seven-time world champion was seen walking around in the Tribeca area of New York City.
The photos were shared on social media by a Twitter handle that goes by the name of @SirLewisUpdates. Hamilton had removed himself from public life in the aftermath of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
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Aside from attending his knighthood ceremony at Windsor Castle and Mercedes' constructors' title celebration at Brackley, Hamilton has not made any public appearances.
The Briton opted out of attending the FIA Gala in Paris on December 16. He could still be reprimanded for the same by the FIA as it is mandatory for the top three finishers in the championship standings to attend.
Hamilton also ended a long hiatus from social media with a post announcing that he was 'back'. The news has been met with a lot of positivity from Hamilton's fans who expect him to return to Mercedes for the 2022 season.
Lewis Hamilton's retirement would be 'extremely damaging' for F1, feels Karun Chandhok
Lewis Hamilton's return to social media is not a concrete guarantee that the Briton will return to F1 in 2022. The seven-time world champion has kept his cards close to his chest during the winter break amidst speculation that he is considering hanging up his gloves for good.
Former driver-turned-F1 analyst Karun Chandhok feels Hamilton's retirement would be 'extremely damaging' for the sport. The Indian shared his opinions during an interview with Express UK, where he said:
“Ultimately only he knows what’s going on in his head. In my opinion, I think it would be very very damaging for the sport if he walked away. Essentially he would be walking away because he didn’t think the sport was fair or credibly run. That would be extremely damaging for the reputation of the sport and the FIA.”
Chandhok believes it will be an uphill task to fix the sport's image if Lewis Hamilton chooses to leave as a result of the F1 2021 season finale. He added:
“For the sake of the sport, I hope he doesn’t walk away at this point. Honestly, if that did happen, it’s quite hard to see how the FIA would recover from that very quickly, to be honest. It’s the sport’s biggest star basically questioning their integrity. So, I hope that doesn’t happen.”
The FIA is currently conducting an internal investigation into the end of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the results are expected to be revealed before the first race of the season in Bahrain.
