"A rare Lewis L": Fans react to Lewis Hamilton's contrarian take on the extreme racing conditions at the 2023 F1 Qatar GP

Lewis Hamilton recently spoke about the intense 2023 F1 Qatar GP. Though he was not able to finish a single lap of the race due to his crash with George Russell on the first corner, he has been hearing quite a lot of statements from other drivers about how physically demanding the race was.

Despite the FIA and other F1 drivers urging the sport to adjust the race weekends to make certain races less intense, the seven-time world champion feels otherwise.

Speaking in the drivers' press conference before the 2023 F1 US GP, Lewis Hamilton stated that F1 is an extreme sport and he has raced in Malaysia, which was much hotter than Qatar. Hence, he feels that a driver must train harder if he is not feeling well after a race of such intensity.

"I'm going to be controversial as always," Hamilton said. "Obviously I didn't do the race, so didn't get to feel the pain that the drivers felt. But I have obviously been here a long time. Malaysia was much hotter than that race and I know what it's like to lose four or more kilos in the race and barely being able to stand afterwards."

"My feeling towards it is... this is an extreme sport. You don't have marathon runners who are passing out after the marathon, saying you have got to make it shorter. This is an extreme sport and we are paid very highly for what we do and from my perspective when I've not been feeling great at the end of the race, I've just got to train harder and that's how it's been for me."

After his comments surfaced on social media platforms, several F1 fans disagreed with the Mercedes star and stated how fatal it can be to race at eye-watering speeds in such weather conditions.

Here are some of the reactions:

"A rare Lewis L on this one. Man even made a Marathon comparison, where when Qatar had the World Athletics Championships in Doha, they ran it at Midnight specfically to AVOID the risk of Heat Stroke. Fitness isn't a factor in this. That race was dangerous, full stop," a fan wrote.

"Let’s wait until someone passes out at 300 kph and kills himself, let’s see what he says then. You can’t compare the consequences of a Marathon runner and an F1 driver passing out because they are moving at completely different speeds," another chimed in.

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Lewis Hamilton admits his mistake for crashing into George Russell at the 2023 F1 Qatar GP

At the start of the 2023 F1 Qatar GP, Lewis Hamilton crashed into his teammate George Russell while trying to overtake him on the first corner of the first lap. This caused Hamilton to lose a tire on his car and retire from the race, while Russell spun a few times before rejoining the track dead last.

After seeing the footage from several angles, the seven-time world champion admitted that it was his mistake. Lewis Hamilton went to X and wrote an apology.

"I’ve watched the replay and it was 100% my fault and I take full responsibility. Apologies to my team and to George," Hamilton wrote.

Later on, there was also a video of Lewis Hamilton hugging George Russell and apologizing to him after the race.