Lewis Hamilton decided to change his name, but why?

Call him soon Sir Lewis Hamilton-Larbalestier. The Mercedes driver surprised everyone on Sunday by officially announcing his change of surname, at an event held in Dubai on Monday as part of the World Expo. The Briton, seven times world champion of Formula 1 drivers, will thus affix the maiden name of his mother, Carmen Larbalestier, to his surname.

lewis #Hamilton will seinen Namen ändern und in Zukunft auch den Nachnamen seiner Mutter, Carmen Larbalestier, führen. Dem siebenmaligen Formel-1-Weltmeister ist es wichtig, “dass ihr Name zusammen mit dem Namen Hamilton weitergeführt wird.”pic.twitter.com/nVwtShPm05

— Deutschlandfunk Sport (@DLF_Sport) March 14, 2022

“I am very proud of my last name. My mother’s name is Larbalestier and I’m about to add it to my namehe assured. I don’t really understand this whole idea that once a couple gets married, the wife loses her name, and I really want my mother’s name to live on with the Hamilton name.“Separated from the father of Lewis Hamilton when the champion was only two years old, Carmen Lockhart (she has since remarried) remains an important personality in the life of Lewis Hamilton.

This change of surname will not take place from the Bahrain Grand Prix next Sunday, the scene of the start of the 2022 season. “But hopefully soon we are working on it” he clarified.

In addition to his flying qualities, Lewis Hamilton has shown himself to be more and more involved in recent years in various social struggles. Very involved in the Black Lives Matter movement against racial discrimination in the United States, he had been the great architect of the time granted by the International Automobile Federation so that the pilots could put a knee on the ground before the races. He had also obtained that the traditional Mercedes Silver Arrows be adorned with black.

Hamilton has also taken a stand against discrimination against the LGBT community by sporting a rainbow-colored helmet in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is illegal. Seeing the Briton take a position this time on the place and legacy of women in society in Dubai, where the non-respect of women’s rights and gender inequalities are regularly denounced by organizations such as Amnesty International, probably did not nothing out of the ordinary.