Lewis Hamilton will hope to get back to winning ways with Mercedes when the new F1 season begins in Bahrain in a few weeks, but on Friday he was in Paris for the Dior Menswear show
Lewis Hamilton lived up to his fashionable reputation as he stepped out at a star-studded fashion show in Paris, after yet more public criticism from former Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
The Dior Menswear show in the French capital attracted a swathe of household names from across industries. And F1 was represented by Hamilton who once again showed off his trendy side as he arrived in style.
The 39-year-old wore a V-neck shirt underneath a brown blazer with a matching pair of trousers. He also wore a pair of red-tinted sunglasses as he smiled warmly and waved to fans.
And Hamilton was far from the only Brit who turned heads at the event. Singer Rita Ora turned up in a white turtleneck while model Kate Moss arrived with her daughter in a light blue sleeveless top.
Hamilton is there after enduring Ecclestone’s most recent tirade. In an interview with the German publication Bild, the ninety-three-year-old praised Max Verstappen and his Red Bull squad while criticizing Hamilton and his faltering Mercedes team.
He stated: “[Red Bull] have patiently weathered Mercedes dominance by gradually replacing each weak link and building the best team, best car, best driver, and best design. Christian Horner has performed admirably.
Right now, Max is the standard in every field. He would still win even if you put him in a McLaren, Mercedes, or most likely a Ferrari. Both Hamilton and [George] Russell were not as successful as they believed they were. They still shouldn’t have lost, though.
Criticism of Hamilton from Ecclestone’s mouth is far from an irregular occurrence. Most notably, he defended Nelson Piquet in 2022 after it emerged that the Brazilian former F1 champion had referred to the Mercedes star by using a racist slur on more than one occasion.
Speaking with passion ahead of that year’s British Grand Prix, Hamilton called for the ‘old voices’ of the sport to stop being given a platform. “In the last couple of weeks, I don’t think a day has gone by when someone who has not been relevant in our sport for decades has not been saying negative things and trying to bring me down,” he said.
“But I’m still here, still firmly planted. I’m concentrating on my work and advocating for inclusion and diversity in our sport. Nowadays, businesses all over the world are responding hastily to it. They most likely already have PR personnel prepared with a script for something similar when something like this occurs; this is not to say that we do.
“Crisis management. It’s not enough. Now it’s time for actual real action. Formula 1, the media, we should not be giving these people a platform. I’ve always tried to be respectful to these individuals but why did we give these guys a platform? They are not with the time, they are not willing to change.
“These micro-aggressions and racial undertones are just creating more divides. I love when Michelle Obama says when they go low, we go high so I try to do that. I’m still here and it’s not going to deter me from doing what is right and doing what I love, which is working in this sport.”
Hamilton went on, “To hear from someone who ultimately believes in the war and in the displacement of millions of people and in the killing of thousands of people, to hear from someone who supports the person who is doing it… that is beyond me,” alluding to separate remarks made by Ecclestone in support of Vladimir Putin following his invasion of Ukraine. That’s amazing to hear what I heard today.”