The plot thickened around Lewis Hamilton’s extraordinary non-appearance at Formula One’s promotional event in London on Wedneasday night after it emerged that his Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was a guest at championship rival Sebastian Vettel’s 30th birthday party.
Wolff’s attendance at Vettel’s at-home celebration in Switzerland is all the more surprising given that the party took place between the Azerbaijan Grand Prix — at which Vettel rammed Hamilton off the road — and the FIA hearing into the collision the following Monday.
It is conceivable that Wolff’s decision to attend Vettel’s shindig is key to Hamilton’s apparent disgruntlement with his team — a situation seemingly so bad that it played a part in his staying away from Trafalgar Square on Wednesday night.