Hamilton objects to 'disgusting' shoey trend

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Lewis Hamilton has made it very clear that he's not going to be drawn into the practice of drinking champagne from his or anyone else's racing boot, a trend started by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in 2016.

Asked what achievement it would take to make him down a 'shoey' on the podium, Hamilton replied succinctly that "there is no racing achievement!

"That is disgusting," he added, in an online interview streamed by UBS Formula One.

"It is kinda of cool that he has got his own little thing, and I admire him for having his own little thing. It is totally cool for me that he likes to drink the sweat off his own foot. But I definitely don't!

"Zero chance. I wouldn't even drink the sweat from my own shoe," he added.

"You don't understand," he explained. "We've got these shoes and it's so hot down by our feet [in the car.] We've got these hydraulic fluids going down there, they're running at like 300 hundred degrees or something crazy, so it's bleeding hot.

"Your feet are drenched afterwards!

"My dad would always call it 'toe jam' - he's just drinking toe jam," Hamilton laughed.

Ricciardo started the trend for a 'shoey' in Formula One after finishing as runner-up in the German Grand Prix. He then managed to persuade former Formula One driver and podium interviewer Mark Webber to join him in taking a swig from his boot in Belgium.

Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen and Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg were next to get sucked into the unusual post-race ritual in Malaysia. Rosberg went on to celebrate in the same way when he won the world championship in Bahrain in November - which might perhaps explain why he quit the sport five days later!

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.