Carey hits back at Hamilton: If cash is king the Australian GP would go ahead

Liberty Media chief Chase Carey has disputed Lewis Hamilton’s suggestion that for Formula 1 'cash is king', saying that if that was the case then the Australian Grand Prix would have gone ahead.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the race in Melbourne was eventually cancelled after a long period of discussions in which fans, particularly those in attendance at the track, were left in the dark.

Hamilton was of the opinion that no-one from the F1 community should have travelled to Australia, saying it was 'shocking' everyone had made the trip.

He went on to suggest that it was purely for financial reasons, but Carey says that is not accurate.

“If cash was king we wouldn’t have made the decision we did today,” he told reporters.

'Cash is King': Australian GP nightmare highlights the greed of F1Read more

“I have addressed this so I can keep saying the same thing, in hindsight obviously things look different, events evolve situations change we made a decision which given the lead time to come here and hold the event when major events were being held here it was a different situation in the world.

“As the situation changed day to day in some days hour to hour we continued to evaluate that and make the appropriate decisions going forward.

“We were trying to digest a lot of different information to make the right decision at the right time and I think we did that.”

The decision to cancel the race came 12 hours after McLaren had withdrawn after an outbreak of the virus in their camp.

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