Hamilton allowed to wear piercing at Singapore Grand Prix, but Mercedes cop US$24,500 fine

SINGAPORE: Lewis Hamilton will be allowed to keep wearing his nose stud at the Singapore Grand Prix for medical reasons, but his team were fined 25,000 euros (US$24,500) on Sunday (Oct 2) for failing to notify stewards.

Mercedes were slapped with the penalty by Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, for submitting a self-scrutineering form that said the British driver had removed all jewellery and piercings in line with regulations.

“In recent events Hamilton had removed the piercing prior to the competition. The team assumed, without enquiring of Hamilton, that he had followed or would follow the same procedure for this event,” said the FIA stewards in their ruling.

“The stewards accept that the error in the declaration in this case was not intentional or deliberate. Given these circumstances, we fine the team 25,000 euros.”

Seven-time world champion Hamilton told reporters that he was wearing the stud again on the advice of doctors after suffering from an infection when he removed it.

“I’ve had my jewellery and my nose stud for years and obviously we had that whole commotion at the beginning of the year,” Hamilton said.

“At the time it was soldered in, so it didn’t come loose. They gave me for many races an exemption so I could find a solution,” Hamilton explained.

“I tried … putting it in and out. It got infected because of that. I got a blood blister and had quite a sore on my nose. This is all stuff I told them before qualifying.

“I put it back in and in the last two weeks it’s started to heal and (doctors) asked that I keep it in.”