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SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — Lewis Hamilton said Thursday that Formula One should ignore “old voices” and reject racism as it focuses on becoming more inclusive.
Hamilton, a seven-time F1 champion and the only black driver, reacted to comments made last year by three-time champion Nelson Piquet by referring to Hamilton with a racial term. The word in question attracted attention this week.
Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, 91, defended Piquet on Britain’s “Good Morning Britain” television show on Thursday, saying he was surprised Hamilton hadn’t “put him down”. Ecclestone, who controlled F1 for decades before retiring in 2017, also expressed his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, saying: “I would still take a bullet for (Putin).”
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Hamilton and the rest of the F1 paddock are in Britain this week preparing for Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Hamilton, who was born in Stevenage, England, has won the British GP a record eight times.
PIQUET:He apologizes to Hamilton for using racial term
“I don’t know why we keep giving these older voices a platform because they’re talking about our sport and we’re looking to go somewhere completely different. And it’s not representative, I think, of who we are as a sport now and where we plan to go,” Hamilton said, mentioning neither Piquet nor Ecclestone by name.
“These old voices are either unconsciously or consciously they don’t agree that people like me, for example, should be in a sport like this, they don’t agree that women should be here,” Hamilton said.
In an apparent response to Ecclestone’s comments, Hamilton added: “Nobody should have to ignore racism, and I shouldn’t be the one to ignore it.”
Formula One issued a statement following Ecclestone’s comments on Thursday: “The comments made by Bernie Ecclestone are his personal views and are in stark contrast to (the) position of the modern values of our sport.”
‘IT’S TIME TO ACT’:Hamilton and Formula 1 respond to racist comments
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Hamilton said he wanted F1 to do more to broaden the sport’s diversity and inclusion. Hamilton is working with his Mercedes team to fund projects that promote greater female participation in auto racing and engineering scholarships for African-American students with a focus on auto racing. They announced the first grants on Thursday.
Piquet was suspended on Thursday from his honorary membership of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, which owns and runs the Silverstone track used for this week’s Grand Prix.
The BRDC said Piquet’s use of “racially offensive language to describe a member of the BRDC is unacceptable and represents totally inappropriate conduct for an honorary member of the BRDC, despite his subsequent apology.” The BRDC added that its board was expected to cancel Piquet’s membership at an upcoming meeting.
Piquet apologized to Hamilton on Wednesday but said the term, while “misconceived,” was not intended to be offensive.
Piquet used the term three times when discussing an accident between Hamilton and Max Verstappen during last year’s British Grand Prix. His daughter Kelly Piquet is Verstappen’s girlfriend.
Even without Piquet’s comments, this week’s British Grand Prix would have had a greater focus on the often bitter rivalry between Hamilton and Verstappen last year. Verstappen crashed into the wall and was taken to hospital for observation, while Hamilton won despite a penalty.
Hamilton faced racist abuse on social media after the race.
There has been widespread condemnation of Piquet’s comments from F1 management, the FIA’s governing body and from many of the drivers.
Ecclestone, who has previously been criticized by Hamilton for his comments on racism and diversity in F1, said Piquet’s closeness to Verstappen could explain his comments.
“Knowing Nelson as I do, as his daughter is Max Verstappen’s girlfriend, probably after seeing the accident… she probably blew up at that point and carried it forward,” Ecclestone said in comments on the TV breakfast show. British television “Good Morning Britain”. ”
