Lewis Hamilton F1 news: Star's punishment for tweeting 'FAKE NEWS' revealed

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Britain, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

Latest F1 News

Hamilton punishment for tweeting 'FAKE NEWS' revealed

F1 legend Lewis Hamilton tweeted confidential data back in his McLaren days

Originally written by Jay Winter. This version is a translation.

Sunday 8 September 2024 03:00

Lewis Hamilton's received a 'proper bollocking' for a social media misstep during the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix weekend, it has recently been revealed.

At the time, Hamilton was still at McLaren, driving alongside fellow Brit and Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button.

Article continues under video

The infamous social media incident occurred after a challenging qualifying session for Hamilton, who finished 12th whilst his teammate Jenson Button secured pole position.

Tensions were high within the McLaren camp as Hamilton struggled to match Button's performance.

Lewis Hamilton began his F1 career at McLaren

Hamilton tweets fake Button data

"Jenson has the new rear wing on, I have the old, we voted to change, didn’t work out, I lost 0.4sec just on the straight," Hamilton tweeted, disclosing sensitive technical data about the McLaren car.

While the post was swiftly deleted after intervention from team personnel, the damage had already been done, and the tweet was screen-grabbed and shared widely online.

Now, former McLaren PR chief Matt Bishop has revealed how McLaren’s sporting director Sam Michael stormed into Hamilton's room to give him a "proper bollocking" after the tweet violated team protocol.

"It reveals tech stuff that you know perfectly well shouldn’t be made public," Bishop told Hamilton, urging him to delete the tweet immediately.

“@SkySportsF1: Martin Whitmarsh confirms McLaren asked Lewis Hamilton to remove his telemetry tweet this morning...” pic.twitter.com/xa5pd4HA
— The Stig (@I_am_The_ST1G) September 2, 2012

Despite Hamilton’s quick deletion of the tweet, the post triggered a media frenzy and internal frustration at McLaren, with team principal Martin Whitmarsh expressing his exasperation.

“I wish our drivers didn’t f***ing do Twitter,” Whitmarsh reportedly fumed.

To make matters worse, the telemetry Hamilton shared wasn’t even Button’s data—it belonged to McLaren test driver Oliver Turvey from a simulator session earlier that week.

The oversight added an extra layer of irony to the situation, with McLaren engineers later laughing about the mix-up.

Jenson Button on the podium in 2011 for McLaren

Button, ever the composed veteran, handled the situation diplomatically but couldn’t resist a subtle dig at his younger teammate.

"I’m not angry with Lewis because it wasn’t a personal thing," Button said to the media. "But I was eight-tenths quicker than him in qualifying anyway."

The fallout didn’t seem to impact Button’s on-track performance, as he cruised to victory in the race. Hamilton, meanwhile, endured a disastrous Sunday, getting involved in a first-lap collision and failing to finish.

Hamilton’s tweet remains one of the more memorable social media gaffes in F1 history, offering a rare glimpse into the internal dynamics of a top team—and serving as a lesson in the perils of sharing too much online.

Lewis Hamilton Formula 1 McLaren Belgian Grand Prix Jenson Button