LEWIS SPARKS F1 RACE STORM
Hamilton: Silence means you are complicit in racism
LEWIS HAMILTON believes his fellow drivers are ‘complicit’ in racism if they do not take the knee before today’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Some drivers resent being pressured by Hamilton into doing so, with the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association ( GPDA) still considering their plan of action last night.
Hamilton’s accusation came as Formula One returns after Covid- 19 against the backdrop of George Floyd’s killing by a white policeman in Minneapolis.
The si x- t i me world champion, who qualified s e c o n d b e h i n d Merce d e s team-mate Valtteri Bottas, has taken up the fight for black rights in recent weeks and is contemplating how to make his own public statement as he lines up for t he nat i o nal a nt hem t hi s afternoon.
Revealing what he told a meeting of t he GPDA on Friday night, Hamilton said: ‘I thanked those that have said something on t heir social media pl at f orms because they have a great voice. I encouraged those who haven’t to say something. I told them silence is complicit.’
Referring to the differences of opinion, he said: ‘We know there is an issue [with racism in the sport] so we don’t need an experience like tomorrow to prove that.’
LEWIS HAMILTON cut an isolated figure as he fidgeted on his tinsel pulpit after being pipped to pole position for today’s Austrian Grand Prix.
The fact he was beaten into second place by his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas was greeted with a degree of delight from garage to garage. Many F1 insiders here have heard enough of the six- time world’s champion’s self-righteous preaching.
The final insult, as many saw it, c a me in his post-qualifying assertion that he considered his fellow drivers to be racists unless they proved that they aren’t.
‘Silence is complicity,’ he reported of his own comments to a meeting of t h e Gra n d P r i x Dri v e r s ’ Association on Friday night, at wh i c h the issue of how to demonstrate against the killing of George Floyd and the waves it caused, on Formula One’s return after a seven-month lull.
He talks of ending division, while in fact he breeds it.
Yes, all the grid’s cast will wear ‘ End Racism’ T- shirts as they line up for the Austrian national anthem but a number of the drivers are pri vatel y unhappy t o be dragooned into taking a knee at H a m i l t o n ’s heavy-handed insistence.
Several were talking last night to think over whether they fall in line, conflicted between a desire to protest at racism on one hand and freedom of self-expression on the other. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz said: ‘Not everyone has decided what to do. You will see tomorrow.’
The chief accusation against Hamilton is one of hypocrisy on several fronts. He is the eco- warrior who, on Thursday, chided anyone wearing a disposable mask on the basis they end up on the ocean floor. But how did this environmentalist arrive in Austria? By a needless private charter flight from Monaco. He could have travelled with his team from the United Kingdom — where he was based after testing at Silverstone on June 10 — but no, he flew to his tax haven home for a few days and then made his own way here.
The journey formed part of his extravagant carbon f ootprint through lockdown that took him from Australia, where the intended opening race was called off in mid-March, to Bali, to America, then to Britain and Monaco. Fine, it is easier to get long distances by plane than by foot. It is just a problem when you virtue-signal your commitment to saving the planet, such as by selling your £25 million candy red private jet (originally bought, as the Paradise Papers revealed, through a company in the British Virgin Islands and on which there was a £3.3m VAT refund).
And where is Hamilton staying while he is i n Austria? In a motorhome driven here as it polluted the roads, just as the V6 engine of his work car will do through 71 strictly pointless laps t o d a y. A fortnight ago, he complained about racism lurking in the sport — and this should not be belittled if that is what he feels, though it is not obviously so — but did he not stop to think how he climbed to the top of the tree?
He was given a massive leg-up by Ron Dennis, the then McLaren chairman, who funded his career through the ranks. There was no obstacle to lavish sponsorship then on the grounds of colour.
Irony is not Lewis’s strong point. Take his call for statues to be torn down, made in one of several inflammatory social media posts. He objected — understandably — to celebrations of men who, in a different time, exploited slavery for riches. But has he pondered for a moment the story of Mercedes Benz, t he company who have provided him with most of his £220m fortune? The snag is that they used 40,000 slave labourers in World War II.
Yet while he is celebrating the lawless destruction of Edward Colston’s monument in Bristol, he is asking for a new, improved contract from the manufacturers of Hitler’s car.
As negotiations are about to start, his team are ready to trim their F1 staff, or redeploy them, as the result of a sport-wide budget cap made more s t r i ngent by t he exigencies of Covid-19.
Last week, casting freedom of speech aside, he berated Bernie Ecclestone for ‘ uneducated and ignorant’ comments about racism, in which the 89- year- old’s chief c r i me was to challenge the perceived orthodoxy. Yet how far
did Hamilton educate himself as to the motives of the Black Lives Matter organisation before compromising social distancing by marching through London under their banner?
Does he know about their quasi-Marxist views? How do their anti-capitalist views fit with his status as the richest sportsman Britain has ever produced?
If he thought it through, he might understand why some drivers might conceivably object to genuflecting before these ideals. It is a tyranny to demand that they must do so. Spontaneity and sincerity are victims.
He has some noble intentions: improving the chances of all. But what is he actively doing to this end, other than indicating that he might, one day soon, launch the Hamilton Commission, of al l self-effacing initiatives?
Why not invest, say, a year’s salary, in establishing a fund to bankroll drivers and engineers from non- white backgrounds to augment his other charitable works? He has had since his debut in 2007 to think that one over.
However, his ‘bubble’ in Austria for Covid reasons comprises his physio and Man Friday, respectively a white New Zealand woman called Angela Cullen and a white Englishman called Mark Hines.
Hamilton is a brilliant driver. He is motivated by some decent impulses. But, please, Lewis, stop throwing stones at your friends.
FORMULA ONE organisers have announced zero positive tests for coronavirus as the sport made its long-awaited return in Austria at Spielberg’s Red Bull Ring.
After the delay due to the global pandemic, the first Grand Prix of the year has been boosted by news of a full round of negative tests.
‘The FIA and Formula 1 can confirm that between June 26 and July 2, 4,032 drivers, teams and personnel were tested for Covid-19,’ said a joint statement by the governing bodies. ‘Of these, zero people have tested positive.’
Strict protocols have been implemented for the restart of racing with teams being tested prior to flying out from their respective countries and personnel attending the circuit undergoing a test every five days, while there are daily temperature checks prior to entering the facility. In the build-up, team personnel have also been kept in bubbles, away from other teams and even away from colleagues in different departments.
What was due to be a recordbreaking 22-race calendar was torn up due to the virus. Today’s race will mark the first of eight races in 10 whirlwind weeks.
They race again in Austria next week before going to Hungary on July 19. There will then be two races at Silverstone (August 2 and 9) before rounds in Spain (August 16), Belgium (August 30) and Italy (September 6).
The sport’s bosses remain hopeful of announcing at least a further eight races with the campaign to end in Abu Dhabi in the middle of December.