Hamilton and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff opted out of attending Thursday’s gala in Paris, where trophies are handed out to the to🥃p three drivers in the championship and the winning constructor.

2021 F1 champion Max Verstappen was present with Red Bull boss Christian Horner, while Valtteri Bot♎tas attended to collect his third-pl💝ace trophy.

Ben Sulayem was elected as pres𒀰ident of the FIA on Friday morning, taking over from Jean Todt after 12 years ಌin the role.

In his first press conference, Ben Sulayem admitted he ✤understood H🎃amilton’s emotions but insisted that “rules are rules”.

“First of all, as a driver, I feel emotional but at the end of the day r✤ules are rules, so we are going to look inﷺto the side where the technical rules are there to be employed,” he said. “Was he in breach? I have to look into it.

“We hav๊e to be following our rules, but in the meanwhile it doesn’t stop us from making a champion feel good about the sport; it’s easy to be nice to people, it’s cheap to be nice, and also to motivate people, but if there is any breach ther🌜e is no forgiveness in this.”

The 60-year-old later♛ cla🌠rified his “no forgiveness” comment.

“What I meant by breach of the rules: there are rules, forgiveness is always there, but rules are rules,” he added. “I alw𒀰ays say rules; humans made the▨m, they are not the Bible or any holy book, they can be improved and changed by humans, rules are there to be improved.

“So, actually, I know that Lewis is💙 really sad about what happened and in one word I would say is he is broken. But we have to look if there was ꦍany breach, I cannot just - a few hours now as a president - just start giving answers without going back to the facts.”