Lewis Hamilton is no stranger to courting controversy and his most infamous was in Monaco during the 2011 Formula One campaign. Having been hauled up in front of the stewards for questionable  driving tactics and crashing into others, again in Monte Carlo Hamilton was summoned for questioning once again.

Lewis had cut the chicane and crashed into Felipe Massa -again – so the F1 officials sought an explanation from him. When asked about his visit to the race officials office Hamilton said: “Maybe it’s because I’m black. That’s what Ali G says. I don’t know.”

The then one time world champion later apologised explaining it was “a bit of a joke, which wasn’t funny at the time”. Of course calling “racism” when theres no evidence it took place, demeans the real issue of racism and unfortunately like the little boy who cried Wolff one too many times, loses credibility for the person making the false allegation.

 

 

 

Hamilton “BLM” Lite

Hamilton since then has grown in his activism against racism. He joined the Black Likes Matter movement after the death of George Floyd at the hands of USA police. He is the focus of an iconic picture of him marching masked up through London giving the “black power” salute along with thousands of others.

As the protests spread around the world, Hamilton demanded of his fellow drivers they take the knee along with him before each race began as a sign of solidarity for those who are oppressed by society.

Taking the knee was initiated by Colin Kaepernick who played in there NFL for the San Fransisco 49ers. During all sporting events in the USA the national anthem is played before the start and people are expected to stand during the rendition.

By kneeling Kaepernick was trying to raise awareness to issues of racial inequality and police brutality. Of course kneeling implies subjection and the power of those standing over those who are ‘made’ to kneel. This clearly went down badly with traditionalists who believes standing during the national anthem is to honour and respect those who have fought for their country and even lost their lives for the cause.

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Source of “kneeling”

Kaepernick in an attempt to justify the action of kneeling later claimed: ”We chose to kneel because it’s arespectful gesture. I remember thinking our posture was like a flag flown at half-mast to mark a tragedy.”

So kneeling at a sporting event as a protest against racism only had context in the USA where the national anthem is played and it was the USA authorities being accused of racism. Formula One drivers kneeling at the German Grand Prix, for example, was meaningless given their government had opened the door in one year to a million refuges who were not of Arian descent.

Lewis persisted and persuaded to engage the FIA on the matter. Ahead of the opening race of the 2020 season, all the drivers wore T-Shirts for the pre-race ceremonies which said, “End Racism,” which was also written on the start/finish line. Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, the sport’s only Black driver, wore a T-shirt with the message “Black Lives Matter.”

Before the drivers gathered for the Austrian national anthem, they stood in a line. Fourteen of them took a knee, while six stayed standing. In addition to Verstappen, Leclerc and 2007 world champion Raikkonen, Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz and Antonio Giovinazzi also stood.

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The little boy who cried Wolff

Of course Black Lives Matter was and is no suffragette movement it is a political organisation which calls for the defunding of the police. Presumably the thinking is with no police brutality any more – because there are no police – racism will end.

Then again maybe the vigilantes who will take over and their political leanings are likely to be even further to the nationalistic right than any current police regime in the USA. 

Hamilton appeared to engage with Black Lives Matter not in their fullest political radicalism but because the three words were a quick fire slogan who called out racism wherever it was to be found.

The problem is that when someone becomes committed to a cause of defeating some kind of repression, it becomes easier to see that oppression everywhere, even in places it doesn’t exist. To this end Lewis Hamilton has again called “racism” this week in a response to the FIA president asking the drivers swear less over team radio.

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FIA president wants less swearing

The boss of the FIA told Autosport in an interview that motorsport was not “rap music” and drivers should curb their use of bad language as Formula One is attracting children as part of its audience. Of course the radio messages broadcast by F1 are on a time delay and any language considered ‘bad’ is bleeped.

Yet Mohammed Ben Sulayem believes the amount of censoring has now reached unacceptable levels. “We have to differentiate between our sport — motorsport — and rap music,” Ben Sulayem said.

“We’re not rappers, you know. They say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are us,” Ben Sulayem concluded. Lewis Hamilton immediately took exception to what he described as “racism.”

“I don’t like how he’s expressed it, saying ‘rappers’ is very stereotypical. And most rappers are black,” claimed Hamilton. “That was the wrong choice of words. There’s a racial element there.”

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“Racism” claims devalue the cause when proven fake

Is Lewis seeing racism where it was never intended? Rappers do swear a lot and in some tracks use the word “nig***” countless times. Maybe Ben’s daughter is into rap and he hates it as the beats pump through the wall each night and all he hears is “mother Fu**er* again and again.

Rappers do swear a lot just like cheerleaders do a lot of cheer leading. Teachers may speak more than most too and in certain places they are mostly white.

Of course Lewis and Ben Sulayem have history with the FIA president sanctioning Hamilton within days of him taking the presidency because Lewis refused to attend the mandatory FIA gala as he was in the top three of the drivers’ championship. A month later the Jewellery ban – which had been in place a decade or so – was enforced harshly by Ben Sulayem’s new regime. Of course as the most bling of all the F1 drivers, Hamilton also took this personally.

We can never know for sure, but it seems the FIA president’s example of rappers using foul language, was not a pop a Lewis Hamilton’s fledging music career or at all intended to be racist. Ben Sulayem himself is a minority within the FIA, given the relatively small number of middle east approved racing members clubs.

He won the election to become the president of the FIA on the grounds he would be less F1 focused than previous incumbents and more inclusive for the all member organisations no matter their minority representation or nationality. 

Red Bull surprise announcement coming in Singapore

 

 

 

Wolff strange concession over Singapore

After more than a fifty year absence from Formula One, Mercedes rejoined the sport, buying the championship winning Brawn GP for the 2010 season. The team recruited out of retirement Michael Schumacher who left Ferrari at the end of 2006 and alongside him they brought in Nico Rosberg who had spent the last four years with the Williams team.

Rosberg had just one podium to his name but was seen by mercedes as a promising back up to there seven times world champion yet in their three seasons together, Rosberg finished ahead of Schumacher in the drivers’ championship and in 2010 and 2012, Rosberg came close to scoring double the number of points of his more decorated team-mate. Schumacher was just 13 points behind in 2010 but overall Rosberg held the advantage with 324 points to 197. were once King of Hill in Formula One land winning an eight consecutive constructors’ titles between 2014-2021.

Yet as has happened throughout the history of F1, a big regulation car design change came along and the silver arrows were caught out.Then in came lewis Hamilton to depose the German maestro and a year later the all new V6 turbo hybrid Mercedes power unit was deployed at what would become one of the most dominant eras ever seen in F1. Mercedes customers were just not capable of deploying the power units as successfully as Mercedes, but since a change in the regulations this is clearly no longer true given McLaren’s superiority over the German manufacturer… READ MORE