FIA could have handled F1 jewellery ban differently, says GPDA

Lewis Hamilton is locked in a stand-off with the FIA after new race director Niels Wittich reminded the drivers about a ban on the wearing of jewellery while competing in F1. 

The seven-time world champion has been given a two-race exemption to remove the nose piercing he says cannot be taken out without surgery but stressed at the Miami Grand Prix that he has no intention of doing so despite the prospect of punishment. 

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"I got an exemption here, I'll get an exemption for the rest of the year. Wedding rings are allowed," Hamilton, who did agree to remove his earrings in the car, responded when asked if he would comply to the regulations. 

While GPDA chairman Wurz, a former Benetton, McLaren and Williams F1 driver, has backed the ruling on safety grounds, he thinks the message could have been delivered more sensitively. 

"It is a rule for the right reasons," Wurz told Reuters. 

"I would have probably liked a slightly different approach of how to deliver the message.

"I don't want to end up in football where there are more hands in the air and verbal abuse...you have to work together. It's a style I would have preferred in this case.”

As well as the clampdown on jewellery, the FIA is also enforcing the regulation that relates to the wearing of non-complaint underwear as part of a fresh push to stamp out driver misdemeanours.  

Wurz recalled a talk he attended when he was younger given by former Danish driver Kris Nissen, who survived a fiery crash in sports cars in Japan in 1988. 

"He showed his body and said 'look at this’,” Wurz said. 

"For him the absolute most painful thing after fire, and it wasn't a long fire, was the rubber [elastic] in his normal pants being burnt into the skin. He said [it was] for years agony and pain. And it educated me.

"At this moment I said I don't want to live these consequences, only for [not] taking my pants off and putting fireproof underpants on. The same with jewellery.”

Hamilton faces penalty threat at Monaco 

Speaking in an interview with The Daily Mail, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem confirmed that Hamilton will face a penalty if he fails to adhere to the jewellery rule at the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix, when his exemption is due to expire. 

“I love jewellery,' Ben Sulayem said. “I absolutely love it. But in the car there can be no choice. People say they (the rules) haven't been implemented before. Don't ask me why not. People can ask the old regime why that is the case.

'That's up to him. There are fines that apply. It's like if someone speeds on the roads - you can't stop them doing it but they get fined, even if it was accidental.

“You can't let people off because they are your friends. There has to be one rule for all, and that's that.”