What happens when you take a racing driver that loves using social media and place him in a sport that despises the internet? You get a battle between Lewis Hamilton and Formula One Management.
This battle has been hitting the media since the weekend in Bahrain started. Just prior to the weekend, Lewis Hamilton was told by Bernie Ecclestone not to take any video footage from within the paddock. Although shooting footage within the paddock may seem like a perfectly harmless thing to do, the Formula One Management takes this very seriously.
Formula One Management (FOM) is the exclusive commercial rights holder of the sport of Formula One. As such, they own the right to license all footage of the Formula One events. FOM licenses the right to broadcast within the paddock to certain media companies for a high price. This means that no teams or drivers are permitted to publish content within the paddock.
Although Hamilton acknowledged the validity of FOM’s complaints, that hasn’t stopped him from defying their requests. The triple World Champion has posted video footage of himself within the paddock on Snapchat, a popular image and video messaging application for mobile devices. The footage was taken on Friday and shows the Brit arriving at the track and walking from the paddock to the team garage.
Hamilton is a frequent user of social media and has millions of followers on his various accounts. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that he has been in trouble because of his social media habits. Recently, he was in a bit of legal trouble for a selfie that he had taking while riding a motorcycle in New Zealand, violating the country’s laws regarding using a mobile device while operating a motorized vehicle. He has also been under fire for various other issues with his past posts.
It’s unclear what FOM or the FIA will do to stop Hamilton from using social media in ways which violate FOM’s commercial rights or whether he will face any punishment for his current infringement. Racing Clothesline reached out to the Mercedes F1 Team for some more information on the issue, but they were not willing to comment at this time.
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