One of the greatest F1 drivers to never win a championship was Stirling Moss. The British driver finished runner-up 4 times but never won the elusive title. One would think with 16 F1 wins and 24 podiums, he may have gotten the chance to spray champagne multiple times. However, back in his day, F1 didn’t celebrate podiums with champions and, as it turns out, Moss is not a fan of this trend either. In 2015, he even criticized Lewis Hamilton for his champagne-spraying celebrations.

Stirling Moss condemned Lewis Hamilton for spraying champagne at a hostess. He explained the tradition of champagne spraying and who started it.

Talking to Reuters, he said, “Champagne spraying didn’t really exist in my day, it was brought in mostly by (American) Dan Gurney. I think he was the first person who did it.” As per the report, Moss stated how differed his views on this tradition which has become a norm now in F1.

The then 85-year-old added, “With good-looking girls, I think it would be rather nice to give them an embrace rather than cover them in champagne, frankly.”

It was at the 2015 Chinese GP in Shanghai that Lewis Hamilton won and performed the controversial celebration. Hamilton, a 2-time world champion back then was chasing his 3rd world title. Moss commented on Lewis that he is yet to become great like many other drivers.

The 16-time F1 winner stated, “I don’t think Lewis [Hamilton] is great yet. We know [Sebastian] Vettel is in there, and [Fernando] Alonso. And Lewis is slightly less valued than someone like Jim Clark but he’s certainly on the way.”

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Moss who passed away in 2020 at the age of 90, would have certainly appreciated Hamilton’s record-equaling 7th championship just months later. But there is a huge difference between the two eras of Moss and Hamilton. In the modern era of Hamilton, there are relatively a lot more races.

F1 canceled the 2023 Chinese GP, with a record 24-race calendar, now reduced to 23

A fixture on the calendar since 2004, the Chinese GP has been a decent track for modern F1 racing. Though since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, China has not hosted any F1 races. The last race in Shanghai happened in 2019.

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F1 has again canceled the Chinese GP for 2023 due to China’s COVID policies. The Shanghai race was going to happen after the Australian GP and before the Azerbaijan GP in April. With lockdown restrictions, China will miss out on a 4th consecutive year of hosting F1.

To replace the 4-week gap between the races at Melbourne and Baku, F1 is discussing possible options. Tracks like the Portimao circuit in Portugal might return to the calendar in lieu of China. The Portimao circuit hosted the Portuguese GP in 2020 and 2021.

Meanwhile, fans might hope for tracks like Istanbul Park (Turkey), Sepang (Malaysia), and Hockenheim (Germany) to make a comeback in 2023. Though as things stand, the next season’s calendar is 23 races long.

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The 24-race calendar was 2023 was receiving a mixed response, with people citing too many races as the reason. Now that the calendar is of 23 races, will it make things better? What should be the ideal number of races in a season?