Prior to his home race at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton’s press moment was of course only about one thing: the racist statements made by three-time world champion Nelson Piquet against him. “It’s not about the statements of one individual, it’s about the bigger picture for me.”
By Arjan Schouten
First and foremost, racism is a specter that Lewis Hamilton has often had to deal with. He would like to emphasize it when the journalists at Silverstone start talking about Nelson Piquet’s recently surfaced statements. In an interview in his home country, the Brazilian called him a neguinhowhich can be translated as the condescending term ‘blackie’.
“It’s nothing new to me, racism, criticism and negativity, I’ve been dealing with that for a long time,” said Hamilton, who received support from all sides in and outside the paddock. ,,I am grateful to everyone for that, it does me good. But for me it’s not about the statement of one individual, more about the big picture. I don’t understand why we keep giving the voices of the past a platform.”
Barely recovered from Piquet’s controversial statements, he nearly fell out of bed early this morning in amazement when he saw former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone attempting live on British TV to justify the war in Ukraine. Ecclestone noted that he thinks Vladimir Putin is an excellent businessman for whom he will “take a bullet for” if necessary.
“Another perfect example of a sound this world doesn’t need at all,” said Hamilton. ,,As an organization, take your responsibility, because you know what you will get if you record such a conversation. We don’t need to hear how anyone believes in this war, the killing of thousands of innocent people. I can’t believe what I’ve heard…”
Formula 1 is a sport that is trying to change, has numerous initiatives to, for example, get more diversity in the paddock, with We Race As One even has an active steering committee that wants to combat racism. But that is Formula 1 today and old figureheads of the sport are clearly not in step with those ideas.
,,I don’t think a day has gone by in the last few weeks that an older person from this sport has said something negative about me, tried to bring me down. But I’m still here, aren’t I. Why do we just give them a platform? They don’t move with the times, apparently don’t even want to change. It just doesn’t help if we keep offering that sound a stage.”
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