Hamilton criticises handling of Red Bull-Horner saga

Lewis Hamilton believes the recent off-track drama involving Red Bull and team principal Christian Horner has "not been handled well".

F1's on-track activity has been overshadowed after the season-opener in Bahrain by a number of off-track controversies that have dominated the headlines.

Horner had a case of alleged inappropriate behaviour dismissed by a Red Bull GmbH investigation ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, only for alleged evidence to be leaked by an anonymous email source during practice day. Tensions within Red Bull have seemingly spilled over since then, with no obvious end to the saga in sight.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is under an investigation by F1's governing body after a whistleblower made two separate claims suggesting he had first requested a penalty against Fernando Alonso to be reinstated at last season's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix before then asking for a reason to be found for the Las Vegas street circuit to be denied certification ahead of it's inaugural event last November.

'Disappointing to see'

With the off-track drama dominating the sport's headlines rather than the on-track fallout from the Bahrain season-opener, Hamilton was asked how he felt about the current state of affairs.

Speaking to media including RacingNews365, and seemingly targeting the ongoing Red Bull situation, the seven-time world champion conceded: "As someone who loves the sport, it is definitely disappointing to see what is going on right now.

"It doesn't look good from the outside world and it doesn't look good from within.

"I think it's a really, really important time for the sport to really show and stick to their values, holding ourselves accountable for our actions.

"It is a really pivotal moment for the sport in terms of what we project to the world and how it's handled - and it's not been handled very well to this point and transparency is really key.

"I am really hoping to see some progress moving forward, but I hope it is not a year that continues to go on with this, but it highlights some of the issues we also have within the sport.

"We talk about diversity, inclusion and making people feel comfortable in this environment is key, and that's clearly not the case."