Saudi marshal removed after sickening Hamilton post

Jamie Woodhouse
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, talks into a microphone. Saudi Arabia March 2022.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, talks into a microphone as part of a press conference. Saudi Arabia March 2022.

A marshal supposed to be on duty for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend has been removed from his post after a sick social post about Lewis Hamilton.

Formula 1’s second visit to Saudi Arabia has been quite the chaotic event so far off-track, with a four hour-plus meeting required on Friday night into Saturday morning to convince the drivers to race on.

That came after a missile strike on a nearby oil refinery, which left smoke visible in the sky from the circuit, while the flames then provided an unwelcome light in the sky as night fell.

Fire is an alarming sight at any time when it relates to Formula 1, with memories of Romain Grosjean’s horror fireball crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix still vivid, a scene which to the relief of everyone, he escaped.

So, it was truly disturbing that a marshal at the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix decided to use this awful event as a way of wishing great harm upon Hamilton.

Posting on Twitter as @Heem4U, he replied, in Arabic, to an image of Hamilton with: “I hope he has an accident like Roman (sic) accident in Bahrain.”

SunSport say they made the FIA and the event organisers aware of the incident, after which it was confirmed that this marshal “has been removed from his post”.

In a further post on Twitter, this marshal confirmed that he was no longer involved in the event and apologised to Hamilton.

“I offer my apologies to the Saudi Motorsports and Motorcycle Federation,” the marshal wrote in Arabic.

“And for driver Lewis Hamilton.

“On my previous tweet, I announced (sic) my withdrawal from the race.”

 

On track, Mercedes’ early struggles to the 2022 season are showing no signs of easing with Hamilton and George Russell way off the pace at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.