During the very first lap of the Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix on July 18, the two championship leaders touched causing Max Verstappen to retire from the race and be checked at the hospital. Even with his 10 seconds time penalty, Lewis Hamilton won his home race. After his win, the seventh time Wold Champion receives a ton of hateful and racist messages (like monkey emojis) thru social media.
It is not the first time the drive has to face racist comments has he explained during an interview in the Netflix tv show called Formula 1 : Drive to Survive. Being the first black driver caused him a lot of trouble since he was eight but he says that these experiences helped to build the beast he actually his.
In 2020 he already opened about the subject after George Floyd’s death. It is one of the first times the Formula 1 talk about an important subject like this one. Usually, drivers cannot talk about politics or any other subject than Formula 1, they cannot take positions. But Hamilton did and he had a lot of backlash about it because people didn’t like the fact that he brings political subjects to the track. He commented « People talk about sport not being a place for politics but ultimately, it is a human rights issue and that is something we should be pushing towards. We have a huge, amazing group of people that watch our sport from different backgrounds and cultures, and we should be pushing positive messages towards, especially for equality. (…) This is a fight for equality, it’s not about politics or promotion». During the 2020 Russian Grand Prix, he wore a t-shirt saying ‘Arrest the cops that killed Bronna Taylor’ before and after the race but the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) was not happy about it and made new rules was about what the drivers can and cannot wear. It has been reported that he was under investigation by the FIA for breaking its sporting code. Even with the new rules, Hamilton has insisted that his support will never be inhibited.
After the British incident, Facebook, which also owns Instagram, confirm that they had to remove a lot of hate comments about Hamilton from their platforms, and called the abuse « unacceptable ». A Facebook company spokesperson told CNN sport « In addition to our work to remove comments and accounts that repeatedly break our rules, there are safety features available, including Comment Filters and Message Controls, which can mean no one has to see this type of abuse ».
We can see the difference of treatment between the two drives. While Max’s dangerous behavior only cause him some comments in the paddock, Lewis still had to face racial abuses. After the race, the driver post a picture on Instagram and said « Today is a reminder of the dangers we fave in this sport and we should never take lightly the risks. » But in the comments, even if they said they had removed them, you can still see some hateful comments.
After this race, the FIA and almost all of the Formula 1 team made a statement about this. The FIA tweeted « Opinion and rivalry are central to our sport. But there is absolutely no place for racism or discriminatory abuse. We will work to hold anyone promoting such views to account. We urge people to show respect and basic humanity ; and to report any examples below those standards ». While the RedBull team add « While we may be fierce rivals on-track, we are all united against racism ». Mercedes-AMG Petronas, McLaren, Williams Racing, Aston Martin, Alpine, and Scuderia AlphaTauri also stands alongside to condemn racism and discrimination since « They Race As One » as they said. Due to all of these statements, Lewis Hamilton said it was the first time in his career that he did not feel alone after receiving racist abuse. He referred to his first years like in 2007 during the Spanish Grand Prix where he received racist abuse from spectators in the grandstands and no one said anything.
But even with all of this happening to him, Lewis keeps pushing F1 to adopt strong anti-racist positions. Other drivers also spoke out alongside him. On top of that, he establishes a foundation that is trying to improve diversity and sport. He is a role model for the younger generation who is more conscious of what is not equal and what needs to be changed.
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