Lewis Hamilton Utters the 10 Words No Race Promoter Wants to Hear after F1 Belgian GP

While the most famous words in motorsports might just be "Gentleman (and ladies), start your engines," there are 10 words that no promoter ever wants to hear.

On the other side of that coin, seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton uttered those 10 words—10 words certain to make a promoter cringe—to a world-wide audience following the absurd F1 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday. .

"I really hope the fans get their money back today," Hamilton said.

There. He said it.

The race was a debacle. There's no argument there. Fans got to see rain-delayed formation lap, a parade lap and then got to experience a 3-hour, 17-minute rain delay all for the fun of watching two more parade laps of Formula 1 cars tooling around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit behind the F1 Safety Car (that's Pace Car for those unfamiliar with F1).

That was it. That was what the people got for their time and money.

It was the shortest race in F1 history by any metric and the only race with zero green-flag laps. The Safety Car led every lap.

Many fans sat on grassy (they became more muddy than grassy by day's end) hillsides overlooking the track waiting for something, anything, to happen. Finally the FIA and Formula 1 sent out the Safety Car for a few laps seemingly to entertain the fans as much as confirm that it was still raining.

It's safe to say fans spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars or Euros on travel, tickets, lodging, food and parking all so that they could sit in the mud. Many probably had even more fun pushing their cars out of the mud from once-grassy parking lots.

Formula 1 used to be a series that would race in any weather. Yes, tire supplier Pirelli brings rain tires. However, ever since the death of Jules Bianchi as the result of a crash in the rain at Suzuka, Japan, in 2014 (Bianchi died from his injuries nine months later), F1 has been more prone to break out the red flag in times of rain.

It's not the grip and the quality of racing that is so much the issue, it's the spray from the backs of the cars that leaves those behind the leaders literally flying blind at times. No, it's not safe. And, no one is advocating racing at all costs and that the health of the drivers be damned.

TV pundits felt F1 had options. Why not come back and try again on Monday? NASCAR has had rain push back races to Monday (or even later) because of rain. Even the Indianapolis 500 has been known to take place a day or more later because of rain.