Formula One bosses reacted to Lewis Hamilton’s stinging
criticism of their confused anti-racism efforts by saying that the sport is on
course to make lasting changes.
Six-time champion Hamilton, the only black driver on the
grid, spoke out after winning Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix to go top of the
embryonic drivers’ championship after three races.
He said F1 was not doing enough, lacked leadership and had
presented a campaign that required better coordination – adding that he would
pushing for improvement this week.
He said the sport’s ‘We Race As One’ campaign had made no
progress since its pre-season launch.
Following another hurried and shambolic pre-race
anti-racism ceremony, during which several drivers took a knee while others
stood, arrived late or remained absent, Hamilton said he would write to Formula
One chief Chase Carey and the president of ruling body the International
Motoring Federation Jean Todt.
“Moving forward, we need to speak to Formula
One,” said Hamilton “They’ve got to do a better job. It was such a
rush, us getting out of the car, running over, quickly doing the knee. They
need to do more.
“I don’t know why they’ve only done it for the first
race. They did it at the start, but they’ve not done it since then. They’ve
come out saying they’re going to be fighting for diversity and end racism, but
they’re not giving us the platform to continue that.”
Referring to the muddled support for ‘taking a knee’
during the pre-race routine, he added: “There definitely is not enough
support for it.
“Many drivers seem to be of the opinion that they
have done it once and are not going to do it again. It’s almost like it has
gone off the agenda. It’s lacking leadership. There needs to be leadership from
the top.”
Formula One responded overnight Sunday with a statement:
“Ending racism and increasing diversity and inclusion in F1 is a clear
priority.
“We set out our plans for diversity and inclusion
last November and have in recent weeks announced additional plans to create a
Taskforce to tackle these issues and a foundation with over $1 million already
donated to create apprenticeships and job opportunities for under represented
groups.
“We want to make lasting change and are acting to do
this.”
The initial $1 million dollars was provided personally by
Carey with Todt pledging that the FIA will add a further 1 million euros (1.15
million).
On Sunday, the ceremony that had been organised on the
grid prior to the national anthem at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix was
switched to the ‘parc fermee’ in the pit lane and received only brief
television coverage.
