Hamilton defends controversial ‘India poor place’ remarks

London : Formula One star Lewis Hamilton issued clarification on microblogging site Twitter following the wave of criticism which erupted after he questioned the decision to host F1 races at the Buddh International Circuit, Noida going to the extent of terming India as a “poor place”.

“I noticed some people are upset with my comment on India. My reference was that a grand prix there felt strange to drive past homeless people, then arrive in a huge arena where money was not an issue,” the tweet read.

“They spent hundreds of millions on a track that was now never used and that money could have been spent on schools or homes. When we did have the race nobody came because it was too expensive or there was no interest,” he added.

The five-time F1 champion recently stated during an interview with the BBC that he found the decision to conduct F1 races in countries which lacked a “racing tradition” quite strange.

“I’ve been to India before to a race which was strange because India was such a poor place yet we had this massive, beautiful grand prix track made in the middle of nowhere. I felt very conflicted when I went to that grand prix,” said Hamilton.

“On the racing side, I don’t know how important it is to go to new countries as such. If you had the Silverstone Grand Prix and a London Grand Prix, it would be pretty cool,” further added the British racer.

India had accumulated an expenditure of approximately $400 million on building a new track as well as a 120,000-seat arena back in 2011.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)