Six-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton said on Saturday he was “sad and disappointed” by the words of Bernie Ecclestone, who was a skipper of the top automotive category, who said on CNN that “black people were sometimes more racist than white. “
“I am very sad and disappointed to read these comments,” the British Mercedes driver wrote on Instagram. “Bernie is out of this sport and comes from another generation, but this (this kind of comment) is exactly what is not correct.”
Lewis Hamilton called the comments of Bernie Ecclestone, who was the patron of Formula 1 for more than 30 years, “ignorant and uneducated.”
“They show us how far we must go, as a society, before real equality is possible,” continued the 35-year-old pilot, heavily involved in social media in the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
“I fully understand now that nothing has been said or done to make our sport more diversified or to combat the racist attacks I have suffered in the course of my career,” he added.
Lewis Hamilton has a part of his origins in Granada, a small island in the West Indies that his grandfather left to settle in England.
Hamilton is currently the only black driver in Formula 1.
“The time for change has come. I will not stop pushing to create an inclusive future in our sport, with the same opportunities for everyone (…) I want to continue using my voice to give the floor to those who speak it they have, “said the British.
Formula One had denounced the words of its leader on Friday.
“In a period when unity is necessary against racism and inequalities, we completely disagree with the words of Bernie Ecclestone, which have no place in either Formula 1 or society,” the organization writes in a statement. , remembering that the Briton has not held any role in Formula 1 since 2017.
Now away from the paddocks, Bernie Ecclestone founded the Formula One Management company in 1987, in charge of promoting and spreading Formula 1 throughout the world.
Ecclestone ran this partnership until 2017, when it was purchased by Liberty Media Group.
Ecclestone was asked several days ago by CNN about the creation by Lewis Hamilton of a commission on diversity, aimed at attracting more black people to the sport of cars.
“I don’t think that will do Formula 1 good or bad,” the 89-year-old Briton had estimated.
– .
