The past few days have been turbulent for Formula 1. The surfacing of Nelson Piquet’s comments directed at Lewis Hamilton given in an interview late last year, in which he used a racial slur, reignited the discussion surrounding racism and the push for diversity in F1, enacting proper change.
The statements made by F1 and the FIA condemned Piquet’s comments, but Hamilton said in his initial response via social media that it was “time for action” to change the “archaic mindsets”, having faced abuse throughout this career.
It meant Thursday’s FIA press conference was always going to have Hamilton face the majority of questions and be at the heart of the discussion. As ever, he spoke on the matter with grace and eloquence, stressing the importance of not giving a platform to “older voices” who are “not representative of who we are as a sport now and where we’re planning to go”.
Just hours before Hamilton spoke, former F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone gave an interview to British morning TV during which he made a number of ludicrous and, frankly, offensive comments, including that he would “take a bullet” for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Hamilton was also asked about recent comments made by Sir Jackie Stewart, who suggested the seven-time world champion should retire from F1.
“The last couple of weeks, I don’t think there’s been a day go by where there’s been someone who has not been relevant in our sport for decades, trying to say negative things and starting to bring me down,” Hamilton said. “But I’m still here and still standing strong.”
Hamilton has thanked those, including Vettel, who have spoken out against abuse
Photo by: FIA Pool
During the press conference, Hamilton gave his thanks to everyone in F1 who has offered their support in recent days, and was clearly quite moved when discussing the support he has received. Sebastian Vettel was spot on when discussing the need to do more to combat racism and abuse, particularly when it came to speaking up and taking action.
“It does take balls to speak up,” Vettel said. “It does take courage, but we shouldn’t be afraid of these situations anymore. Because I think we have more allies than we think.”
On Friday morning, a video emerged of another interview with Piquet, in which he used the same racial slur to describe Hamilton, along with a homophobic comment. This goes far beyond someone claiming they made the wrong choice in wording, or…
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