Victory photo highlighting lack of diversity made Hamilton ‘sad’

Lewis Hamilton says a photo of Mercedes’ celebrations after their sixth straight championship in 2019 left him “frustrated and sad” and determined to do something about the lack of diversity in Formula One.

The 36-year-old told The Wall Street Journal that he was left feeling depressed when studying the picture more closely afterwards. “I zoomed in on [the faces], from the F1 Instagram,” he said. “I’ve been here 15 years, 14 years – how has it not changed? I was really sad about it. I was frustrated and sad.”

Hamilton has been vocal about the lack of diversity in the sport and has partnered with the Royal Academy

of Engineering, which released a report in July revealing that fewer than one per cent of people working in F1 were black.

He has also pushed the Black Lives Matter message, kneeling at every race since the death of George Floyd last summer, criticising his fellow drivers for not doing enough to speak up about racism, and wearing a T-shirt that read

“Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor” at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix, even though he knew it might land him in trouble. F1 later changed the rules about what drivers can wear on the podium. This summer Hamilton founded Mission 44, a foundation to back children from underrepresented groups, not only in F1 careers but in science, technology, engineering and maths [STEM], with a personal donation of £20 million.

He also pushed for his latest contract, signed during the 2021 season, to include stipulations for increasing diversity within the team.

As part of that investment, Hamilton yesterday pranked some primary schoolchildren from Camden, all aspiring F1 engineers, who were being given a tour of the Mercedes team’s Brackley headquarters.

The seven-time world champion disguised himself as an elderly engineer before unveiling his true identity. The trip was arranged by UBS, a partner of the Mercedes team.