Lewis Hamilton has had his fair share of controversies over the years and one of the more notable ones was after the 2015 F1 Chinese GP. During the podium celebrations, the Mercedes driver sprayed champagne on one of the grid girls.
It did not cause much outrage at the time, but in the following days, the Shanghai Feminist group Object complained that the Briton had "abused" the girl by dousing her with champagne.
He was labeled "selfish and inconsiderate" and an apology was demanded from the Mercedes driver. Hamilton, unaware of what had happened, was questioned about the same on the eve of the next race weekend in Bahrain, to which he said:
"I hadn't really heard too much about it until today. Obviously when you arrive you get a debrief as to what has happened during the week, so fortunately for me it has not overshadowed my week. Ultimately it was a great weekend, and generally my actions are through excitement."
He added:
"This is Formula One, the pinnacle of motor sport and I'd just won a grand prix for the team. You should see it was a kind of a fun thing. I would never ever intend to disrespect or try to embarrass someone like that."
Even the grid girl who had been sprayed on came out and said that it was all just creating an issue out of nothing. She said:
"I think some foreign media are more sensitive about the topic compared to local media. I was just told by my employer to stand on the podium, and that's what I did."
Lewis Hamilton: If the grid girl was upset I would be concerned
Giving his take on the matter, Lewis Hamilton said that he would have been more concerned if it was the grid girl that had complained. Since that was not the case, there was much ado about nothing in his opinion. He said:
"I don't really know the reasons why people have brought those things up. This is a sport so many love, and the more we show character and fun it reflects how great this sport is, and that's what I try to do."
He added:
"It hasn't affected me, and it's nice to know the lady kind of wrote in [to the paper]. If she had wrote in and said she was really upset then perhaps I would be more concerned."
Lewis Hamilton went on to win the title that season as he beat Nico Rosberg for the second consecutive season.