Lewis Hamilton has demanded that F1 and its teams take genuine action against racism and promote diversity, saying bigger voices are holding back the sport.
After former driver Nelson Piquet used a racist epithet to describe Hamilton earlier this week, the British driver has called his sport just to talk about change.
Piquet’s insult was widely condemned, but Hamilton, who has taken a strident stance against racism in F1 for more than two years, insists there is a bigger picture to address than personal insult.
“It’s okay to get on the grid and talk about inclusion, but it’s just empty words without putting it into practice,” he said.
Hamilton has backed up his words with facts. On Thursday, its Ignite Partnership and that of Mercedes unveiled its first grants as part of its joint commitment to improving diversity in sport. Among them, they have pledged $ 6.2 million to the fund and Hamilton has donated £ 20 million to his Mission44 project to promote diversity.
However, he was frustrated by the lack of action from other F1 teams. In the report his Hamilton commission made to improve race inclusion, he recommended an F1 charter to provide funding to implement diversity, as well as to facilitate access with learning and to support activity of black community groups. The letter had been agreed but not signed.
“I’ve been calling with all the F1 teams who agreed to be part of this F1 letter and it’s not signed yet, it’s not underway yet,” he said.
Hamilton has also recently received criticism from both former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone and three-time world champion Jackie Stewart, as well as Piquet’s insults and was clearly frustrated by what he considered unjustified attacks. “Whether consciously or unconsciously they don’t agree that people like me should play a sport like this, discrimination is not something we should project and promote.
“I’ve been on the receiving end of racism and criticism and negativity and archaic narratives for a long time and with nuances of discrimination, so there’s nothing new for me. I don’t know why we give a platform in older voices.We seek to go to a different place and are not representative of who we are now in sport.If we seek to grow our audience and give younger people a more representative platform of today’s times.It is not just about ‘an individual or of the use of this term, but of a larger image’.
Hamilton’s participation in this weekend’s British Grand Prix had been in doubt due to his ongoing confrontation with the FIA, in which he insisted that he would continue to use the nose drill in the car, against the rules that the FIA is complying with. He may have faced a ban, but he appears to have reached a compromise with the governing body. Although neither he nor the FIA have explained where they stand with respect to the rules.
“I’ll run this weekend,” he said. “I will work with the FIA, the matter is not too important. I will work with [FIA president] Mohammed bin Sulayem and his team so we can move forward. “
The British Racing Drivers’ Club, which owns Silverstone and runs the British Grand Prix, has suspended Piquet as a member, citing its policy of zero tolerance towards racism. The club has assured that it plans to formally terminate Piquet’s membership in a board meeting to be held within seven days. They described his actions as “unacceptable and represent totally inappropriate conduct for an honorary member of the BRDC.”