In an interview with Mercedes, the current World Champion said it will feel ‘'very empty’’ when the F1 circus potentially visits the likes of Silverstone and Monza without any fans this year.  

“Around the world, all the races we go to, the more fans there, the more atmosphere you have. That’s why you have places like Silverstone and Monza. So it’s going to be very empty. 

“But what’s great is the messages from people around the world, because they’re not getting to watch sports, it just shows how significant sport is in people’s lives. It brings us all together and it’s so exciting and captivating.” 

Hamilton is expecting the events will have the atmosphere of a pre-season test session in Barcelona. 

“I don’t know how exciting it’s going to be for people watching on TV but it’s going to be better than nothing, For us it’s going to be like a test day. Probably even worse than a test day in a sense – at a test day there’s not a huge amount of people at Barcelona that come to watch but there are still some.’’ 

“But here you’re going to have nobody in the crowd and you’re just going to see empty seats as you’re driving down.” 

The Australian Grand Prix was cancelled just hours before FP1 was due to begin in Melbourne. The British star said it was a shock to the system, despite criticising the fact that the race weekend looked set to go ahead the previous day.  

‘’It really was a shock to the system. Obviously on that Thursday, I commented my opinion on whether or not we should have been there.’’ 

“Then to wake up the next day, honestly with excitement that I’m going to be getting in the car, and then to hear that we’re not going to be going to the track it was very, very surreal.’’ 

“We weren’t quite sure whether it was going to happen. We missed practice one and then practice two went and qualifying went. But I stayed there through the weekend and it was tough.” 

Hamilton is looking forward to pushing his car to the maximum for the first when F1 returns, which looks set to be at the Austrian Grand Prix in early July. He feels that the time off has given him more appreciation for what he does, too. 

“I don’t think any of us have had enough time to truly unleash the potential of our cars so I’m excited to get back in. I really do miss it.’’ 

“This has been almost a blessing on one side because it gives you even more appreciation for the things that you love and the things that you do. This has given me more energy and inspiration and determination to keep delivering and keep working with this great team and so I’m excited for the future.”