Hamilton said it ‘felt strange to drive past homeless people and then arrive in a huge arena’.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has responded after he received criticism for suggesting India is “such a poor place” and questioned whether Formula One races should be held there.
The five-time Formula One world champion posted a response to social media, saying India is “one of the most beautiful places in the world” but reaffirming his point.
“Whilst it’s the (fastest) growing economy it also has a lot of poverty,” he wrote.
“My reference was that a Grand Prix there felt strange to drive past homeless people and then arrive in an huge arena where money was not an issue.”
The Indian Grand Prix was held three times between 2011 and 2013 at the Buddh International Circuit in Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, as the 17th race of the Formula One season.
Hamilton wrote on Instagram: “They spent hundreds of millions on that track that is now never used. That money could have been spent on schools or homes for those in need.
“When we did have the race nobody came because it was too expensive most likely or no interest. However I have met some amazing Indian fans.”
Criticism of Hamilton began after he said he would prefer racing venues with “real racing history”, such as England, Germany, Italy and the US, after Vietnamese capital Hanoi was recently announced in the F1 calendar for 2020.
Lewis Hamilton (Online photo)
“I’ve been to Vietnam before and it is beautiful,” the 33-year-old told BBC Sport.
“I’ve been to India before to a race which was strange because India was such a poor place yet we had this massive, beautiful grand prix track made in the middle of nowhere.”
Indians took to social media to criticise Hamilton for his comments.
“No Lewis Hamilton, you are wrong,” wrote one Twitter user. “F1 needs to go to new countries to popularize the sport.
“I think it’s better you stick to racing and let the sponsors, marketing and branding teams for Formula 1 handle the race circuits. FYI F1 is hugely popular in India.”
Another wrote: “India is not poor but world’s sixth largest economy and fastest growing.
“Yes, it does have a large no. of poor and efforts are on to uplift them. Simultaneously, we have adequate (infrastructure), (people) amongst richest in world, a humongous middle class, and a market 4 big players.”
But Formula One expert Kunal Shah said the sport is not a priority in India, tweeting: “His comments aside, we just have different priorities as a developing country & economy. Let’s just accept & acknowledge that.”
Hamilton next races on Sunday November 25 in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the season.
The Englishman sealed his fifth world championship title at the Mexico Grand Prix in October, and is currently 81 points clear of second-placed Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
NEW YORK (AP) — He seems "selfish and self-serving,” said one woman.
The way he carries himself in public "leaves something to be desired," said another.
His “negative rhetoric and bias," said another man, is what is “most harmful."
Over the past week, Donald Trump has been forced to sit inside a frigid New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his criminal hush money trial share their unvarnished assessments of him.
It’s been a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. Now a criminal defendant, Trump will instead spend the next several weeks subjected to strict rules that strip him of control over everything from what he is permitted to say to the temperature of the room.
“He’s the object of derision. It's his nightmare. He can't control the script. He can't control the cinematography. He can't control what's being said about him. And the outcome could go in a direction he really doesn't want," said Tim O'Brien, a Trump biographer and critic.
While Trump is occasionally confronted by protesters, generally he lives a life sheltered from criticism. After leaving the White House, Trump moved to his Mar-a-Lago waterfront club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is surrounded by doting paid staff and dues-paying members who have shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to be near him.
Many days, Trump heads to his nearby golf course, where he is "swarmed by people wanting to shake his hand, take pictures of him, and tell him how amazing he is,” said Stephanie Grisham, a longtime aide who broke with Trump after the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
When he returns to Mar-a-Lago in the afternoon, members lunching on the patio often stand and applaud. He receives the same standing ovation at dinner, which often ends with Trump playing DJ on his iPad, blasting favorites like “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by James Brown.
Grisham, who spent long stretches traveling with Trump and at Mar-a-Lago during his 2016 campaign and as White House press secretary, described staff constantly serving as cheerleaders and telling Trump what he wanted to hear. To avoid angry outbursts, they requested motorcade routes that avoided protests and they left a stack of positive press clips every morning on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Now, Trump faces a trial that could result in felony convictions and possible prison time. And he will have to listen to more critics, without being able to punch back verbally — something he revels in doing.
Among the expected witnesses in the trial are his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, and the porn actor who alleged she had sex with him, Stormy Daniels. Both have savaged him in interviews and books as well as on social media.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump proved during his first week in court that “he will remain defiant in the face of this unprecedented political lawfare” and said, “It is clear that his support from the American people will only grow as they watch Joe Biden, Alvin Bragg and the Democrats putting on this bogus show trial six months before the election.” Bragg is the Manhattan district attorney.
New Yorkers who said they couldn't approach the case fairly were excused during jury selection. But one of the women with the harshest assessments of him will be among those who will determine his fate on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“I don’t like his persona, how he presents himself in public," said the woman, who has lived in upper Manhattan for the last 15 years. The woman said she didn't agree with some of Trump's politics, which she called “outrageous."
“He just seems very selfish and self-serving, so I don’t really appreciate that in any public servant,” she said, adding that while she doesn't “know him as a person,” how he "portrays himself in public, it just seems to me it is not my cup of tea.”
Trump’s legal team took issue with her responses, but they were out of challenges by the time she was up for consideration.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan has withheld the names of prospective jurors for safety concerns.
On Friday, one prospective juror, who said she had attended the 2017 Women’s March protesting Trump’s inauguration, complained of the influence he has over his base.
“I think his rhetoric at times enables people to feel as if they have permission to discriminate or act on their negative impulses,” she said, citing people she has heard make homophobic or racist comments. Still, she said she didn’t have strong feelings about the former president and wasn’t sure of his current policy positions.
Another man said he’d grown up admiring the former president and business mogul's real estate portfolio and even thinking he might someday live in Trump Tower. But he had come to oppose Trump's “negative rhetoric and bias against people that he speaks about."
At other times, lawyers read aloud social media posts from prospective jurors mocking Trump and celebrating his defeats.
One prospective juror, an older white woman, was struck from the jury pool by the judge after Trump's legal team uncovered years-old social media posts that described Trump as a “racist, sexist” narcissist.
One of Trump's attorneys called the posts "vitriolic.”
“She harbors a deep hatred for him,” said the lawyer, Susan Necheles. “She said that ’I wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized'” and that he was “anathema” to everything she was taught about love.
Confronted with the posts inside the courtroom, the juror said she understood why they’d be concerning to the defense, but her views had evolved. “Election policies can get pretty spicy and Mr. Trump can get pretty spicy,” she said.
Merchan, the judge, also dismissed a man who in 2017 had shared a Facebook post celebrating the defeat of one of Trump's policies in court. “Get him out and lock him up!” it read in part.
Court rules require Trump to be present throughout the trial. He can't storm out of the courtroom like he did during a recent defamation trial. He is also barred by a gag order from attacking any of the jurors, including on his Truth Social platform.
He has already been admonished by Merchan for audibly uttering something and gesturing while one juror was answering questions.
"I will not tolerate any jurors being intimidated in this courtroom,” said Merchan, who previously warned Trump he could be sent to jail for engaging in disruptive behavior in court.
Trump's assessments in the courthouse weren't all bad, however, with a perhaps surprising number of potential jurors saying they had no strong opinions about one of the best known and most divisive men on the planet.
In fact, the process seemed to reveal more supporters than might be expected in a borough where President Joe Biden captured 87% of the vote in 2020.
One potential juror Thursday who spoke of Trump in glowing terms said he was “impressed” with Trump's career as a successful businessman.
“I mean he was our president, pretty amazing. He is a businessman in New York. He has forged his way, you know, he made kind of history in terms of like where he started and where he has become," said the man, who said he saw his own story similarly.
On Tuesday, another man expressed regret that he couldn’t juggle the trial with his job.
“Your Honor, as much as I would love to serve for New York and one of our great presidents, I could not give up my job for six-plus weeks,” he said.
Many said they had read his book “The Art of the Deal.”
Even the woman who criticized his persona and ended up on the jury anyway acknowledged his appeal to voters.
“Sometimes the way he may carry himself in public leaves something to be desired. At the same time, I can relate to sometimes being a bit unfiltered,” she said. “I see him speak to a lot of people in America. I think there is something to be said about that.”
Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal in New York, Friday, April 19, 2024. (Sarah Yenesel/Pool Photo via AP)
POOL PHOTO: Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to press outside the courtroom ahead of today's jury selection on April 19, 2024. (Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal in New York, Friday, April 19, 2024. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)
Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits as final jurors are sworn in during his criminal trial on charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in Manhattan state court in New York, Friday, April 19, 2024, in this courtroom sketch. (Jane Rosenberg via AP, Pool)
Former President Donald Trump appears for jury selection in his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Friday, April 19, 2024. (Curtis Means/DailyMail.com via AP, Pool)
