Hamilton criticizes FIA for 'overreaction' to Belgian GP rain delay

Lewis Hamilton provided his opinion regarding the delay to the start of the Belgian Grand Prix, calling the decision an overreaction and "too much the other way" in terms of safety.

Heavy rain fell at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps prior to the start of the race. When drivers went round the track during the formation lap, many complained about a lack of visibility following behind other cars, especially down the Kemmel straight.

Hearing this, the FIA decided to abandon the start of the Grand Prix and to wait until conditions improved. However, another rain shower delayed resumption even more, and even after conditions had improved drastically the field spent four laps behind the Safety Car before racing recommenced.

This lengthy delay proved to be an unpopular decision for many fans and drivers, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen stating he "could've went miles earlier" given the choice.

Hamilton Gives His Input

Hamilton won the Driver Of The Day award, and with good reason. The seven-time World Champion started from 18th after a Q1 exit on Saturday and decided to fit new power unit components on his SF-25.

Over the course of 44 laps around the Belgian circuit, Hamilton danced his way around numerous other cars and excelled in changeable conditions to climb 11 positions, crossing the finish line in seventh place.

Despite this stellar result, the Ferrari driver couldn't hide his disappointment regarding the decision to delay the start of the Grand Prix.

"We obviously started the race a little too late, I would say," he said. "I kept shouting, it’s ready to go, it’s ready to go, and they kept going round and round and round.

"So I think they were probably overreacting from the last race — where we asked them not to restart the race too early because visibility was bad.

"I think this weekend, they just made it a bit too much the other way. Because we didn’t need a rolling start," stated Hamilton.

An Overreaction From Silverstone

The 40-year-old believes that one of the main contributing factors to the FIA's cautious approach to the race restart was something that was discussed after the preceding British Grand Prix.

• Read Also: Verstappen expresses anger at FIA rain delay decision at Spa

Hamilton explained: "I think it was just a reaction to Silverstone — we sat down and spoke about it — and the drivers said in the last race we shouldn’t have restarted.

"So I think they just focused on visibility — as soon as someone said visibility up ahead was really bad, which it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as bad as the last race.

"And I think they just waited to be sure. I think they still did a good job. Of course, we missed some of the extreme wet racing, which I think would have been nice.

"But for some reason, the spray here this year is like going through fog. I don’t know what we’re going to do to try and fix that," concluded the Briton.

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