Lewis Hamilton is at the heart of an unfortunate case. While he recently regained his sporting confidence with a third place at the Canadian Grand Prix after a very difficult start to the season, the six-time Formula 1 world champion was targeted by racist remarks.
Former driver Nelson Piquet, crowned three times between 1981 and 1987, used the word “neguinho”, which means “little nigger” in Portuguese to describe the Briton, during an interview granted for a podcast recorded in Brazil last November. Lewis Hamilton, who has accustomed us to being very committed to several social issues, decided to respond to him through a message posted on his Twitter account.
“Targeted all my life”
“They are more than words. These are archaic mentalities that must be changed and which have no place in our sport. I have been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted all my life. There was a lot of time to learn. The time has come to act” he replied. His Mercedes team, F1 and the International Federation have decided to express their support for the British driver by disclosing in turn a long message in the form of a press release. “We condemn in the strongest terms any use of racist or discriminatory language, of any kind (…) Lewis is an incredible ambassador for our sport and deserves respect. His tireless efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are a lesson to many and something we hold particularly dear.“we could read.
Ferrari, which is a competing team, still wanted to show understanding towards the 37-year-old driver through a little tweet. “We stand with F1, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to fight against against all forms of discrimination“said the Italian company. An initiative also followed by Red Bull, the team of reigning world champion Max Verstappen, which does not “tolerate no form of racism“.
A few days ago, it was footballer Kylian Mbappé who asked for support from the French Football Federation after being the victim of racism after his missed penalty against Switzerland during Euro 2021.