Lewis Hamilton Was Once Slammed by Niki Lauda Over Insensitive Shooting Video

Sabyasachi Biswas | 21/05/2023
Lewis Hamilton Was Once Slammed by Niki Lauda Over Insensitive Shooting Video

The late Niki Lauda once slammed Lewis Hamilton over an insensitive social media post. The Mercedes driver posted a gun-shooting video from his Instagram account, which Lauda asked him to remove.

Hamilton has been a restless and outgoing driver in the early days of his career. After arriving in Mercedes, the unrest increased as he was in a constant battle for supremacy in Mercedes with Nico Rosberg.

Since he was an outgoing driver, he loved to live his life to the fullest. In the process of living life, the Mercedes star committed a blunder back in 2015, and that was something Lauda, about who Hamilton had a weird perception, didn’t take lightly.

Lauda asked Hamilton to remove the video

Back in 2015, a video of firing a machine gun at a shooting range in Colorado, United States, was uploaded from the Mercedes star’s Instagram account.

However, it coincided with the unfortunate event when a man named Ayoub El-Khazzani was stopped with an AK-47 assault rifle on a French train.

Following this, Lauda, the late Mercedes great, immediately asked the Briton to remove the video. The Mercedes chief Toto Wolff also asked the British driver to do the same, as per The Guardian. In the context of the video, Wolff advised Hamilton is needed “to be aware of what is happening out there in the world.”

What was Hamilton’s justification?

The seven-time world champion, however, had an entirely different take on the incident. After taking off the video from the internet, the Stevenage-born stated that it wasn’t him who uploaded the video for him. To clarify, he said it was one of his friends who handles his media during the race weekends, and he uploaded the controversial video.

The video, which was believed to have been taken during the 2015 mid-season break, has garnered ample criticism. As per The Independent UK, it had over 34,000 likes before it was taken down.

Furthermore, Lewis Hamilton was criticized by the fans for having insensitive behavior towards the injured victims of the French train attack. He was also bashed for being a world champion and setting a bad example for the next generation.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg Niki Lauda Toto Wolff

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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