Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey rejected Lewis Hamilton’s claim that money drove the decision to try and hold the Australian Grand Prix.
Before the positive coronavirus test for a McLaren team member which ultimately led to the cancellation of the race in Melbourne, the six-time world champion admitted his surprise that the event was going ahead.
Pushed on why he thought it was, Hamilton simply said “cash is king”, as he opted not to toe the line others were in putting their trust in the FIA and other officials.
“If cash was king we wouldn’t have made the decision we did today,” Carey told reporters when asked about the comment after the cancellation was announced.
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As for what had motivated Liberty’s decision to push ahead…
“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,” Carey continued.
“As the situation changed day-to-day, and 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.”
Since then, the Bahrain and Vietnam GP’s have been postponed and it has been suggested the F1 season may not start until the Azerbaijan GP in June, but the F1 chief was pragmatic.
“I don’t think at this point you can start to put plans in place longer-term,” he said. “I think you have to deal with the issues that you have to deal with that are imminent but the longer- term we will see where it evolves.
“Obviously everyone hopes that the world gets back to a place where it’s a functioning world and a functioning marketplace, but we have to deal with it as it evolves.”