F1 boss Carey rebuffs Hamilton’s ‘cash is king’ comment

Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey has rejected Lewis Hamilton’s suggestion that the championship was only pressing ahead with the now-cancelled Australian Grand Prix for financially-motivated reasons.

On Friday it was announced that the season-opener in Melbourne had been abandoned following an outbreak of coronavirus in the paddock after a McLaren team member tested positive for the virus, resulting in the team withdrawing from the event.

Speaking before the cancellation, Hamilton said he found it “shocking” that F1 had pushed ahead with plans to run the Albert Park race amid the global coronavirus pandemic, while other major sports were taking precautionary measures by suspending their respective competitions.

When asked why he felt F1 was continuing, Hamilton quipped: “Cash is king.”

But when addressing the media in a press conference on Friday, Carey insisted money was not the driving factor behind the delayed response to call off the race.

“If cash was king we wouldn't have made the decision we did,” Carey said.

"I have addressed this so I can keep saying the same thing, in hindsight obviously things look different, events evolve situations change we made a decision which given the lead time to come here and hold the event when major events were being held here it was a different situation in the world.

“As the situation changed day to day in some days hour to hour we continued to evaluate that and make the appropriate decisions going forward.

“We were trying to digest a lot of different information to make the right decision at the right time and I think we did that.”

Asked if F1 had considered pulling the plug before teams travelled, Carey replied: “We have been discussing this issue before last week, its not like it came out of the blue.

“We made the decision to come here based on what we knew last week, the situation on the ground here, the events they were having, the number fo infections here.

“The situation in Europe was broadly better a week ago than it is now. We were aware we had to evaluate but it looked essentially when the teams started travelling at that point in time that it was the right decision and the situation changed in many ways.

“We were always aware and having discussion and looking at many contingencies.”

There are serious doubts over whether the upcoming races in Bahrain and Vietnam can take place as scheduled on March 22 and April 5 as F1 continues to evaluate its options.