Lewis Hamilton still sees great difficulties for young talent on the road to Formula 1, especially if they belong to minorities.
“The problem with our sport is that it’s very expensive,” the seven-time world champion told the BBC programme ‘We are England’, where he met British motorsport talents Lewis Appigayei and Ruben Stanislaus for a chat.
However, he said, “there are a lot of people and companies out there who want to drive diversity and inclusion. A lot of companies want to partner with the right message,” Hamilton said.
With this in mind, it’s not just about “what you do on the track” for young drivers, Hamilton added, “but also how you present yourself. And also how you deal with it when you lose.”
According to the Formula One driver, however, there is still a lot to be done. “There is too little diversity at the top of big organisations and companies, everywhere. There are too few black leaders.”
Hamilton himself has been looking after better opportunities for black people in British motorsport since 2021 with his “Hamilton Commission”.
Lewis Hamilton criticises managers in F1
For himself, he says, race was a major obstacle at the start of his career. “I was the only dark-skinned person on the track,” Hamilton recalled.
The 38-year-old criticised the managers in Formula One, saying that they were “not there until you deliver what is required of you”.
Instead, he said, it is the family that a young driver can rely on. “Your father or parents are behind you for the right reasons, from the beginning. If you don’t succeed then, they’re still there,” said Hamilton, who was managed by his father Anthony for many years but broke away from him in 2012 as part of his move from McLaren to Mercedes and has been looking after his own interests ever since.
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Smh.
In the USA the avg income of minorities is higher than the avg income of white people.
Hamilton just did an interview with his protege, a cup driver who is also black. This kid said that everytime he didn’t get kudos or was punished, it was because of his skin color.
Guess what buddy… white people get punished and don’t get kudos either.
Society has created a huge problem with teaching minorities that when they don’t get their way, or if they are held accountable for their actions or if there isn’t a statistically HIGHER representation that it’s because of RACISM.