Doctors say Alex Zinardi remains stable

LONDON — Six-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton is to set up a commission to increase diversity in motorsport.

The Mercedes driver said the aim of the Hamilton Commission would be to make the sport “become as diverse as the complex and multicultural world we live in.“

Writing in British newspaper The Sunday Times, Hamilton said it would be a research partnership dedicated to exploring how motorsport can be used as a vehicle to “engage more young people from Black backgrounds with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and, ultimately, employ them on our teams or in other engineering sectors.”

“I’ve been fighting the stigma of racism throughout my racing career — from kids throwing things at me while karting, to being taunted by fans in black face at a 2007 grand prix, one of my first Formula One races,” he wrote.

Hamilton, who is the only Black world champion in F1, has spoken widely about racism after saying he was left feeling “so much anger, sadness and disbelief” following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

He wrote in the paper that the “institutional barriers that have kept F1 highly exclusive persist,” adding that the thousands of people employed in motorsport need to be more representative of society.

ZANARDI STABLE

Doctors treating Italian auto racing champion-turned-Paralympic gold medalist Alex Zanardi say he remains stable after a crash on his handbike but is at risk of unforeseen complications.

In a new medical update Sunday, the Santa Maria alle Scotte hospital in Siena said the longer Zanardi’s vital signs remain stable, the better off he is. But the update warned that his neurological condition remained grave and that doctors cannot “exclude the possibility of adverse events.”

Zanardi, who lost both of his legs in an auto racing crash nearly 20 years ago, has been in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator since he crashed his handbike into a truck near the Tuscan town of Pienza during a relay race Friday.

Doctors say he suffered serious facial and cranial trauma and have warned of possible brain damage.