skip to main content

FIA extend Lewis Hamilton's jewellery exemption for a month

Lewis Hamilton: 'We've definitely got bigger fish to fry'
Lewis Hamilton: 'We've definitely got bigger fish to fry'

Lewis Hamilton will be able to race in Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix wearing jewellery after his exemption was extended.

The seven-time world champion, 37, was told in Miami earlier this month that his nose stud – which he says cannot be easily removed – must be taken out for the seventh round of the campaign in Monte Carlo.

But Formula One’s ruling body, the FIA, who are enforcing the jewellery clampdown on safety grounds, have granted Hamilton a new deadline of 30 June – three days before the British Grand Prix.

Speaking on Friday, Hamilton said: "Honestly, I feel like there’s just way too much time and energy being given to this.

"I’ve said everything I feel I need to say on it in the last races and that is not where my focus is this weekend.

"The rule came in in 2005. I think we’ve all worn jewellery throughout our careers in Formula One.

"It’s not been a problem in the past and there’s no reason for it to necessarily be a problem now.

"It definitely is positive that we’re working with [the FIA] and I think they’re accommodating a little bit at the moment.

"But we shouldn’t have to keep on revisiting this thing every weekend. We’ve definitely got bigger fish to fry."

Bernie Ecclestone

Meanwhile, former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has denied he was arrested for carrying a gun before boarding a flight in Sao Paulo.

Ecclestone said the firearm, a LW Seecamp .32, was not loaded and it was packed in his luggage by accident.

The 91-year-old claimed he spent several hours with local police reporting the incident, because the gun had not been registered.

Ecclestone said: "No, I wasn't arrested, I was questioned. I had a small, tiny little handgun, like a woman carries in her handbag in case someone tries to jump them.

"I got it from somebody years ago, a mechanic in Formula One, who said it is good to carry in your pocket in Brazil because they are mugging people all the time out there, and you can say bugger off.

"It has no bullets or anything, and it was just a show-thing. Whether it would have worked or not, I don’t know because it has never happened to me. I only ever had it in the house and I have never walked around with it.

"But I was mucking about with it at home, jokingly pretending to arrest somebody, and then I took my shirt off.

"I left my things to be packed and that shirt was packed in with my luggage.

"When we got to the airport, I was asked to come to immigration because they had scanned our luggage and they said it looks like there is a gun.

"They said we won’t open anything until you are there. I arrived, we opened the bag, we all looked through the luggage, we couldn’t find it, and eventually we found it.

"I told them what it was and they said now we have got a problem because it has to be reported.

"The gun is legal in Brazil but where they were upset is that it is not registered. The offence was not having the gun but that it wasn’t registered.

Ecclestone, who is now in Portugal, said he had to pay 6,000 Brazilian reals (£1,000), to the local authorities, and the gun was confiscated.

He added: "We spent forever trying to sort it out to report things, and by then the airport was closed, and we couldn't leave until five in the morning [on Thursday] so I spent a pleasant few hours with the police.

"But it was all very friendly, very nice and there were lots of Formula One enthusiasts to speak to.

"They wouldn't take dollars so it had to be local currency and it was 6,000 reals which was nothing.

"It was all very embarrassing for everybody – a lot of aggravation for nothing."

Read Next