Lewis Hamilton hits out at rivals as FIA deny him and Max Verstappen their wish

Lewis Hamilton’s opinions were not matched by the rest of the grid (Image: Getty) Lewis Hamilton has called out his F1 rivals for not prioritising the quality of racing after the teams overwhelmingly agreed not to add a fourth DRS zone to the Marina Bay street circuit this weekend. Both he and Max Verstappen had asked for another DRS zone to be added after F1 confirmed that the Singapore track would be adjusted to bypass the construction work which is rendering the old final sector unusable.  Addressing the layout changes to the Marina Bay street circuit, Hamilton said: ‘I don’t think, at the moment, there’ll be more overtaking. Well, maybe there’ll be a slightly better overtaking into Turn 7 just because the track is better through that first couple of corners.  ‘But I think we need the DRS through that new section which all we drivers requested from the FIA. The FIA asked all the teams and a couple of teams turned it down. So, in the driver’s briefing, we’ll try and bring it up. ‘The teams should be for more racing, not against it. It’s interesting to have a few teams that are against it. But we’ll discuss it and try. Overall, it’s going to be an interesting race, it’ll be down to deg though mostly.’ Hamilton’s views on the DRS debate were shared by rival Verstappen, who explained ahead of the action: ‘It’ll probably be a little bit less [strain on the tyres], but I am hoping that it also helps the racing. But it will depend on if we can get a DRS zone in there or not.’ Despite these calls from Hamilton and Verstappen, when the topic of adding an extra DRS zone was put to the teams, they weren’t too keen on the idea, voting against the proposed changes to the DRS configuration. Max Verstappen and Red Bull were hoping for more DRS (Image: Getty) The FIA confirmed their decision to Autosport ahead of the racing in Singapore, stating: ‘We won’t be assessing any additional DRS zones for the Singapore Grand Prix. ‘It is something that was considered following the change in layout for this year, and the FIA contacted all of the teams several weeks ago to ask for their feedback and input.  ‘There was, however, no clear consensus from those teams that responded and, following our safety simulations, it was decided that we wouldn’t take the matter any further.’