Seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton says that action must be taken to stop giving “older voices” a platform in Formula 1.
The F1 community has shown its support for Hamilton in the past week after an old interview with Nelson Piquet surfaced, in which he allegedly used a racist remark toward Hamilton.
Piquet issued an apology to the Mercedes driver, but asserted that the word he used isn’t considered racist in his home country of Brazil.
Hamilton, who has been outspoken on matters such as racism and equality over the last couple of years, is keen to see people “more representative of today’s time” have a platform to speak.
“I’m incredibly grateful to all those that have been supportive within the sport, particularly the drivers,” Hamilton said ahead of the British Grand Prix weekend.
“It’s been two years since many of us took the knee at the first race in Austria [in 2020], and of course we are still faced with the challenges.
“I’ve been on the receiving end of racism and criticism and that negativity and archaic narratives for a long, long time – and undertones of discrimination – so there’s nothing really particularly new for me.
“It’s more about the bigger picture. I don’t know why we are continuing to give these older voices a platform, because they’re speaking upon our sport and we’re looking to go somewhere completely different.
“And it’s not representative I think of who we are as a sport now and where we’re planning to go.
“If we’re looking to grow in the US and other countries, South Africa, and grow our audience we need to be looking to the future and giving younger people a platform that are more representative of today’s time, to who we are trying to be and the direction that we are going.”
Hamilton has also criticised the knee-jerk reactions undertaken by organisations, believing that releasing a statement of solidarity is not enough to solve the issue.
“It’s now a knee-jerk reaction really from companies all around the world,” he said. “When something like this happens – I’m not saying that do – but you have got to imagine that everyone’s PR agency or PR people have already got a script ready for something like that.
“Crisis management. It’s not enough, now it’s about actual real action, we’ve got to start acting.
“It comes down to F1, to the media, we should not be giving these people a platform.
“These old voices, whether they’re subconscious or consciously do not agree that people like me – for example – should be in a sport like this, do not think that women should be here…
“Discrimination is not something we should be projecting and promoting, and giving a platform that can divide people.”
Hamilton has set up a Mission 44 foundation which aims to support people from underrepresented groups in the UK.
His Mercedes team has also launched the Accelerate 25 in a bid to improve team diversity over the next five years.
“It’s been two years since many of us took the knee at the first race in Austria [in 2020], and of course we are still faced with the challenges.”
I would love to know what challenges he actually faces on a daily basis by being half-black that other people do not have to deal with? All of this privileged buzzword liberal millennial/gen Y talk is so robotic and meaningless. These people have been conditioned to a mentally ill state of life to crumble at the sight or sound of almost anything — they are literally degraded DNA at this point. The worst thing a person can do, especially someone as famous and hated as Hamilton, is let people know what actually bothers you; because it will only trigger people to resort to that level out of pure hatred. And God does Lewis make it easy to hate him, so I do not feel sorry for him one bit, especially when all he is dealing with it someone calling him a “bad word”.
For just one day I would love someone like Lewis to have to be a disabled kid in middle school, being called names and even beaten up for not looking or acting “normal”. People like that are the people who face legitimate problems, not only for being brought into a world that is properly not set up for them, but from others not accepting them as one of their own and taking care of them. Lewis has no idea how easy he has it by just simply having to hear the n-word every now and then. And quite honestly, if he has actually heard it as much as he now claims, he would be used to and just ignore it. This is why I call bullshit on his “struggle”, because we NEVER heard about this pre-George Floyd except in Spain 2007 during a test session when a fan had a sign with a racial remark written on it, and F1 took immediate action and it never happened again.
I do feel F1 and certain drivers are driving fans away with all this political and social engineering that is not what I signed up to.
Ok will watch qualifying and the race but all the lead up to it especially on Sky seems to focus on the diversity and green agenda whilst I am just interested in the racing the engineering and the drivers.
Thank god for Indy car the only reason I still have Sky tv where there is a often a couple of female drivers and they don’t bang on about it they are just drivers competing with the guys, and the racing is good with cars that actually look like the drivers make a difference .
So Lewis you are talking crap as women were in the sport back in the 70’s were highly involved wives and girl friends doing lap charts , timing and Lella Lombardi I recall finished 6th in Spanish gp and Divina Galica tried to qualify for a few grand prix and was quite successful in the British F1 championship and Sports cars .
I think the W series does not help if woman are any good they would shine in F3 or F2 anyway and as a woman I will not watch it is segregation and sets a low bar.
How would you feel Lewis if they had a series just for colored drivers .
I am not alone in thinking this Jade Edwards who competes in the BTCC just wants to compete at what ever the top level is against the best drivers and test her metal.
Someone like Jamie Chadwick could of been in F2 by now or an Indy car on merit if she not wasted time in the W series backwater .
Lewis stop putting every one in a box including yourself it goes nowhere in the long term and being old is not a crime some of us have been following the sport for ages and we are kind of invested in its future and we like the idea of new young fans ,but don’t push us out to make room as that sounds like discrimination in my book .
Discrimination is his entire MO, while at the same time attempting to make others feel like they are discriminating against him. He wants to wipe out anyone with a differing opinion than his, and is obsessed with adding blacks in F1 (even though supposedly we are “all the same” and skin color doesn’t matter? Sure, makes sense to me). Textbook Marxism and Jewocracy 101 — blame others for that which you are guilty of. Simply put, Lulu is a commie cuck puppet who has never had an original thought enter that small brain of his.
So basically he is saying that anyone with a differing opinion than his should be censored. Who are the “fascists”/”nazis” now? Leftwing nuts like Lulu are. What he considers bad words and ideas aren’t to others. What he doesn’t consider bad words and ideas are to others. No one is right, no one is wrong; that’s the beauty of humanity because ultimately there are no rules and everyone should be allowed to say and feel whatever they want. If something someone says offends you, that’s really your problem and no one else’s.